CITIZENS COMPASS —Simon Faleye, the Personal Assistant to the late Group Managing Director and CEO of Access Bank Holdings Plc, Herbert Wigwe, has recounted the last moments of his deceased boss and premonitions he had about the helicopter flight that killed him, his wife, son and business associate, Abimbola Ogunbajo.

Faleye spoke while mourning and eulogising Wigwe at the Night of Tributes on Wednesday night.

Recall that Faleye was supposed to fly in the chopper but later decided to accompany their luggage by road since it could not carry it.

Simon Faleye said he got the nod of Wigwe who applauded the idea as a brilliant one.

Afterward, he headed to Vegas by road with the luggage while Wigwe, his wife, son and Mr Ogunbajo boarded the chopper to the same destination.

While on his way to Vegas, Faleye tried calling his boss and others on the chopper, but none of the calls pulled through.

“Five of us embarked on that journey. I remember Mr Bimbo chatted with me and said he wanted to come with us, it was a Tuesday. And I told him my boss’ journey was not always straightforward. Sometimes, you can get in the air and divert somewhere else, and he said he was going to wait.

“I said he was still going to Abuja that day, and maybe he’ll be leaving later in the night and he said he was going to wait.

I still tried to let him understand that we will be in London Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. He said he will stay in his house and wait. I really don’t know why I was trying to convince him, I don’t know, and we all went on the journey.

“We flew from London to Palm Springs. I remember, in the middle of the air, I walked up to him. I said sir, how comfortable are you flying a chopper at night? I’ve never done it before. And he said, ‘This is America, they have navigation systems for flying choppers at night, and I went back to my seat.

“As they were loading the luggages, this thought started coming in my mind that, okay, you will fly a chopper, one hour you are there. The next three and a half hours, the luggages are not going to come. Will I go to bed, no. I still have to sit down and wait for those luggages to come. I was like so, why not just go with the luggages and get there and deliver to him and others in the room. Like I said, I always reason in the line of duty. And I went up to him, I said, sir, I think it’s safer and will be secure for me to just ride and bring the luggage to you. He said, “brilliant idea, and I said safe flight,” He said.

-With additional reports from Vanguard