The CEO of one in all Nigeria’s largest banks was among the many six folks killed when the helicopter they have been on crashed Friday night time in California, an official stated.
Herbert Wigwe, the group CEO of the Lagos-based Entry Financial institution, was on board the helicopter together with his spouse and son, together with Bimbo Ogunbanjo, World Commerce Group Director Common Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala stated in a submit on X.
She didn’t embody the names of Wigwe’s spouse and son.
Ogunbanjo, also referred to as Abimbola Ogunbanjo, is the previous chair of NGX Group, the Nigerian inventory trade.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Division stated in a press release Saturday night that every one six individuals who have been on board are lifeless. It has not publicly recognized the victims.
The helicopter crash was reported at about 10:12 p.m. Friday, a quarter-mile east of Interstate 15’s Halloran Springs exit, it stated. The plane was recognized as both a Eurocopter EC130 or an Airbus Helicopters H130, in keeping with federal officers. They’re basically the identical mannequin.
Halloran Springs, the identify for a pure springs website within the Mojave Desert and its surrounding group, is about 80 miles south of Las Vegas, the place the Tremendous Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs is about to be held Sunday.
The Nationwide Transportation Security Board, which is investigating the crash, scheduled a information convention on the crash for six p.m. native time.
“The dying of Roosevelt Herbert Wigwe is a horrible blow for Nigeria and Africa’s banking business,” Bayo Onanuga, spokesperson and particular adviser to President Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu of Nigeria, stated on X.
“Wigwe had an enormous imaginative and prescient to make Entry Holdings Africa’s greatest, with all of the unquenchable thirst for acquisitions,” he continued, referring to Entry Financial institution’s mum or dad firm.
Nigerian journalist and superstar Modele Sarafa-Yusuf stated on her social media accounts Saturday that Wigwe was a good friend, and that his loss is profound.
“He had such wonderful affect in banking and finance, artwork, schooling, and philanthropy,” she stated. “Cerebral and quick-witted, he was at all times a pleasure to be round.”
Temperatures within the space have been within the excessive 20s on the time of the crash, in keeping with Nationwide Climate Service information. Winds have been pretty mild, at round 10 mph, however gusts have been beginning to transfer in, and a few have been measured at 29 mph earlier than the solar rose Saturday, in keeping with the climate service.
The California Freeway Patrol reported shortly after the crash {that a} “giant band of snow” was shifting by way of Halloran Springs, in keeping with a log of visitors incidents. It stated the snow was reasonable and combined with rain.
The reason for the crash has not been decided.