Tragic: Access Bank Group CEO, others die in helicopter crash

The Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, Herbert Wigwe, is reported dead.

Wigwe was reported to have died following a helicopter crash in California near the Nevada border in the United States of America.

It has also been confirmed that his wife, son, and former Chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group, Abimbola Ogunbanjo, died in the crash.

The New York Times reports that no survivors have been located as of Saturday morning, the authorities said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said that the Eurocopter EC130 helicopter crashed at around 10 p.m. local time near Nipton, Calif., an unincorporated community about 60 miles south of Las Vegas in eastern San Bernardino County.

It was unclear on Saturday morning where the helicopter departed from and where it was headed.

Efforts to get comments on the development from Access Holdings proved abortive as of the time of filing this report.

The Head of Media Relations at Access Holdings, Kunle Aderinokun, and some members of the media team did not take their calls or respond to messages.

Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe was born on August 15, 1966, in Ibadan.

He was, until his demise, the CEO of Access Holdings Plc, trading as Access Corporation.

He was the Group Managing Director/CEO of Access Bank plc, one of Nigeria’s top five banking institutions, after succeeding his business partner, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, who was at the helm of affairs from January 2014 until April 2022.

Sources: Punch News, Independent | Nigeria