A leading member of the governing New Patriotic Pary (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko has mourned the death of the CEO of Access Bank and Access Holdings, Herbert Wigwe.
Mr Otchere-Darko says this is a huge and unexpected loss to Africa’s financial infrastructure.
“This is terrible news; a huge, unexpected loss to Africa’s financial infrastructure. It was only 22 years ago that Herbert Wigwe and Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede bought to turn one of the smallest of 89 banks then in Nigeria into one of the biggest banks in Africa,” he wrote on his X platform on Saturday, February 10.
A chopper transporting Herbert Wigwe, the CEO of Access Bank and Access Holdings, has crashed with him and about five others aboard in California, United States.
American news outlet CBS reported that Wigwe’s wife, son and Abimbola Ogunbanjoa, a former chair of Nigerian Exchange Group also died in the crash.
The chopper was headed to Las Vegas when it crashed Friday night near Nipton, between Nevada and California.
United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in a statement confirmed all onboard are dead.
FAA said no survivors had been found as of Saturday.
“We were made aware of a downed aircraft at approximately 10:12 p.m., on February 10, 2024. The scene of the crash was determined to be east of the 15-Freeway, near Halloran Springs Road,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
FAA identified the aircraft as a Eurocopter EC 130 helicopter. It was registered to a Burbank-based tour company called Orbic Air.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash at the time of filing this report.
Additional files sourced from The Guardian