First Nation’s multimillion-dollar plane sold as scrap, towed to Oyo

An Airbus A320 jet belonging to First Nation has been sold as scrap to a yet-to-be-identified buyer.

The carrier grounded its operations for technical reasons about four years ago before this development.

The multimillion-dollar plane, which had become unserviceable over time, was towed along the Oshodi-Agege Motor Road on Tuesday night, to Oyo, causing heavy gridlock and widespread confusion.

There were also widespread rumours the jet had crashed but the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria had since denied the report.

“The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria would like to inform the general public to disregard the news making the rounds on social media about an alleged crash at Ikeja airport. The aircraft was sold by the owner to a buyer, who was taking it to its final destination,” the FAAN statement read.

It was gathered that the third party who bought the carrier for scrap, had got a court injunction to sell the plane in order to recover certain costs for less than N50m after its engine and electronics had been removed.

The development probably followed the renewed determination by FAAN and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to rid the nation’s airports of unserviceable and abandoned airplanes.

The National Assembly had recently mandated the aviation agencies to remove unserviceable and disused planes from the nation’s airports, saying they were constituting safety hazards.

One of the drivers of the three lorries towing the fragmented plane confirmed to newsmen Wednesday that the equipment was being taken to Oyo State.