Just when Nigerians were giving up hope of ever finding the missing Beechcraft 1900D aircraft owned by Wings Aviation Limited, another twist have been added to the saga. Niger-Delta Standard gathered from a reliable source that the pilot who flew the controversial plane, Captain Augustine Egbedi, is alive after all and allegedly been communicating with one of his wives in Lagos through telephone from Canada. It would be recalled that the said Beechcraft 1900D disappeared on Saturday, March 15, 2008, on its way to Obudu, Cross River State from Lagos.
Since its disappearance, rescue agencies like the National Emergency Just when Nigerians were giving up hope of ever finding the missing Beechcraft 1900D aircraft owned by Wings Aviation Limited, another twist have been added to the saga. Niger-Delta Standard gathered from a reliable source that the pilot who flew the controversial plane, Captain Augustine Egbedi, is alive after all and allegedly been communicating with one of his wives in Lagos through telephone from Canada.
It would be recalled that the said Beechcraft 1900D disappeared on Saturday, March 15, 2008, on its way to Obudu, Cross River State from Lagos. Since its disappearance, rescue agencies like the National EmergencyManagement Agency (NEMA), men of the Nigerian Police, Nigerian Army, Air force and volunteers had searched extensively for its wreckage but all in vain.
All the three people on board, including the said pilot, were feared dead. And so neither the wreckage nor the bodies were spotted till date. While the search was on, there were revelations and analysis from the media that the missing aircraft must have been flown out of the country, specifically somewhere in Sierra Leone with millions of foreign currencies and suspicious documents belonging to one former Governor from the South facing corruption and money laundering charges.
The latest twist to the missing aircraft is that the pilot of the ill-fated aircraft, Captain Augustine Egbedi, was alleged to have spoken to one of his wives through telephone from Canada. NDS source who is a close family relation of Captain Egbedi and who pleaded anonymity stated that after the wife concluded communication with the Captain, she called a close family member to Egbedi residing in Delta State, informing him that her husband is alive and that he had just communicated with her from Canada.
The source further alleged that the wife warned the Captain’s relation to keep the news top secret to avoid the prying eyes of suspected plain clothes security agents seen hovering around the palatial family home of Egbedi at Ikorodu, suburb of Lagos state.
“I was at home when I received a telephone call from a close relation of Captain Egbedi informing me that one of the wives of Egbedi just called to intimate him that her husband is well and alive as she just finished communicating with him on telephone, adding that he made the telephone call from Canada”, the source alleged, just as he disclosed that he was warned to keep the information top secret as secret agents are still investigating the matter”, he said.
When contacted on telephone, the elder wife of Captain Egbedi, Mrs Roseline Egbedi, who spoke on behalf of the Captain’ s family, denied the allegation, describing it as among one of the rumours peddled by journalists to sell their papers. She, however, added that if such a thing happened, the family would have been celebrating.