Kinfe Kahssaye, AirNigeria CEO- Resigns (Sahara Reporters)

Kinfe Kahssaye, the Chief Executive Officer of
AirNigeria, has resigned from the troubled
airline.
SaharaReporters learnt that Mr. Kahssaye
finally decided to step down yesterday after
discovering that the airline was unlikely to
return to business. Air Nigeria has been
dogged by huge debts owed to commercial
banks by its owner, Jimoh Ibrahim. Mr.
Ibrahim, a rogue businessman with a
reputation for taking over well-known
businesses and then running them aground,
has been unable to meet his airline’s
obligations to service providers in Nigeria and
around the world.
A source at the grounded airline told
SaharaReporters that Mr. Ibrahim’s inability to
provide funds to get the last two planes in the
airline’s fleet airworthy led to Mr. Kahssaye’s
decision to resign his appointment yesterday.
Mr. Kahssaye recently returned from trips to
the US and the UK. A source disclosed that
the overseas trips were a desperate attempt
to revive the comatose AirNigeria. “He found
out during the trips that the dream of saving
the airline is a hopeless one,” said our source.
The virtual collapse of the airline adds to the
business woes of its owner, Mr. Ibrahim. The
shady businessman is also embroiled in a
public and legal feud with the original
directors and founders of Newswatch,
Nigeria’s premier news magazine. After
acquiring controlling stakes in the magazine,
Mr. Ibrahim made a bizarre decision to shut it
down. The original founders, including the
magazine’s CEO Ray Ekpu, accused Mr.
Ibrahim of fraud, asserting that he had not
paid the agreed sum for his majority stake in
the weekly publication. The Newswatch case
is headed for the courts.
Recently, Mr. Ibrahim unilaterally fired
majority of workers at the airline with due
process, the workers in turn embarked on
street protests to push back against the
businessman.
SaharaReporters learnt today that Mr.
Ibrahim’s workers at his Abuja NICON Luxury
Hotels are gearing up for a protest tomorrow
in Abuja over poor conditions of service and
nonpayments of wages.
Mr. Kinfe is owed five months of unpaid wages
according to insiders knowledgeable about his
resignation.