Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, and the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, were among those who expressed shock over the tragic death of the Access Holdings Plc boss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atiku, in a tweet on his X handle on Saturday night, described the incident as unfortunate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He wrote, \u201cI\u2019m deeply saddened to hear about the unfortunate incident that led to the loss of Herbert Wigwe, Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, and his family. Indeed, Herbert Wigwe, consummate banker, education promoter, and philanthropist, numbered his days. On behalf of my family, my heart goes out to their loved ones and everyone affected by this unfortunate incident. May their souls rest in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obaseki, on his part, said the death of Wigwe \u201chas left me extremely shocked and devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement he personally signed, the governor said, \u201cWe also unfortunately lost Wigwe\u2019s wife and son, as well as the former Group Chairman of the Nigeria Stock Exchange, Abimbola Ogunbanjo, in the crash. The tragic incident is painful and heart-wrenching, and we pray for God\u2019s abiding comfort in this profoundly difficult time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWigwe was a colossus in Nigeria\u2019s financial sector, leading Access Bank to become an international brand that placed Nigeria on the global map of first-class financial services. I commiserate with the Wigwe family, the Ogunbanjo family, Access Bank Holding, the Nigeria Stock Exchange, friends and associates, and pray that God will grant all the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Director-General, World Trade Organisation, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, posted on her X handle @NOIweala, \u201cTerribly saddened by the news of the terrible loss of Herbert Wigwe, Group CEO Access Bank, his wife and son as well as Bimbo Ogunbanjo in a helicopter crash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy deepest sympathies and condolences to the Wigwe family, the Ogunbanjo family, Access Bank Group employees and Management and my younger brother, Herbert\u2019s partner, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede. May the souls of the departed rest in perfect peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, former lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani, described the incident as a great loss, tweeting, \u201cIt was sad and heartbreaking; a great loss. May their souls rest in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On his part, a House of Representatives member, Akin Alabi, described the incident as a national tragedy and heartbreaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, described the incident as shocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHis (Wigwe\u2019s) death is confirmed. It is a big loss to every sector, and not just himself, with his wife and son. It is very painful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Public Affairs Specialist, Office of Communications, FAA Rick Breitenfeldt emailed, \u201cContact local authorities for the names and medical conditions of the people on board.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President of the Association of Foreign Airlines and Representatives in Nigeria, Dr. Kingsley Nwokoma, said he was aware of the information regarding Wigwe\u2019s demise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a big loss. He didn\u2019t die alone, both his wife and son were also involved. It\u2019s quite unfortunate that they had to die this way,\u201d he said on the telephone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few months ago, the co-founder of Access Bank disclosed plans to invest $500m in Wigwe University, a strategic initiative aimed at fostering skills crucial for the finance and technology sectors in Nigeria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, and the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, were among those who expressed shock over the tragic death of the Access Holdings Plc boss. Atiku, in a tweet on his X handle on Saturday night, described the incident as unfortunate. He wrote, \u201cI\u2019m deeply saddened to hear about the unfortunate incident that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89282,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89278\/revisions\/89282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}