Nigeria’s richest man Aliko Dangote has named the “biggest” road network in his refinery complex after the former CEO of Access Bank Herbet Wigwe.
Wigwe died in a helicopter crash in the United States along with his wife and son in February.
“I have actually decided to name our major refinery and petrochemical road—out of the 120 kilometres of them—the biggest road will now be named Herbert Wigwe [Road],” Dangote said at a memorial for the late bank chief on Monday evening.
He described Wigwe as his mentee, brother and friend.
Wigwe, was travelling with his wife, Chizoba, son, Chizi, and Bimbo Ogunbanjo, a former chairman of the NGX, from Palm Springs Airport to Boulder City, Nevada when the accident occurred.
About 90 minutes after the charter flight took off, “the helicopter impacted the terrain south of I-15 near Halloran Springs, California,” about 75 miles (120 kilometres) northeast of the city of Barstow, said Michael Graham, a board member of the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
He confirmed that six persons, including two crew members, died in the crash.
“As far as we know…there was fire when the aircraft did contact the terrain,” the NTSB board member said at a press conference.
He explained that witnesses said there “was rain with wintry mix” when the accident occurred.
Graham, however, warned that investigators were still working on determining the exact weather at the time of the crash.
“This is the beginning of a long process. We will not jump to any conclusions,” Graham said
“A Eurocopter EC 130 helicopter crashed near Nipton, California, around 10 pm local time on Friday, Feb. 9. Six people were on board,” the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on its website, without naming the victims.
The FAA said there would be an investigation.
Graham warned that it could take up to 24 months to produce a final report on the investigation.
