How I Escaped From Kano – Governor Amaechi

Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State has narrated how he was detained and escaped from Kano after his plane made an air return due to bad weather at Abuja Airport.

Governor Amaechi visited Kano on Sunday on a condolence visit, following the death of the late emir, Ado Bayero.

His return to Kano, however, led to the grounding of the private jet in which he was travelling.

The governor said even when they came down from the aircraft, they were not allowed to leave the airport by the officials who claimed to be acting on orders from above.

But the regulatory agency, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, swiftly denied reports that it grounded the plane which took Amaechi to Kano.

A source close to the agency said: “NCAA is not connected to the grounding of the aircraft. I think the order could be from the presidency or did you see NCAA in your report.”

The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, also denied issuing the order for the grounding of the aircraft.

A NAMA source, however, stressed that the aircraft in question was not the controversial aircraft earlier grounded by the aviation authorities last year that was only released a week ago, adding that the aircraft was currently parked in Port Harcourt.

However, Governor Amaechi revealed that those with him had to break the exit gates, made a dash through the night for Abuja by road and arrived in the early hours of yesterday.

Governor Amaechi was with Senator Danjuma Goje, Senator Shaban Lafiagi and erstwhile national chairman of the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party, nPDP, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, when the incident happened on Sunday evening hours after Sanusi was named as 57th Emir of Kano.

Danjuma and Lafiagi, both serving senators, were former governors of Gombe and Kwara states, respectively.

The presence of Governor Amaechi and other top chieftains of All Progressives Congress, APC, earlier in the day in Kano, it was reported, was to put pressure on the authorities in Kano to push for the emergence of Sanusi as emir.

Amaechi, however, denied the insinuations, saying he only came for a condolence visit. The reported lobby of the APC chieftains was in the face of alleged similar moves by sympathisers of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to stop Sanusi, who had lately emerged as a vicious critic of the Federal Government.