Victor Ikwuemesi

Victor Ikwuemesi

Who Is Victor Ikwuemesi? Victor Ikwuemesi is a Nigerian businessman. Chief Victor Ikwuemesi is the founder and chairman of defunct Sosoliso airlines. During it’s operations in Nigeria Sosoliso Arlines limited was a scheduled, domestic and passenger airlines. The airline got it’s worst hit on 10th December 2005. On December 10 2005, Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 carrying about 110 aboard from Abuja to Port Harcourt crash landed and only 2 persons survived the crash. Bimbo Odukoya (A popular Christian speaker) who died a day after the incident, and Kechi Okwuchi.

Victor Ikwuemesi Profile

Victor Ikwuemesi Biography & Wikipedia

Chief Victor Ikwuemesi is the foremost chartered accountant and entrepreneur who became popular in 2000 when he set up the Sosoliso Airlines Limited to run scheduled domestic passenger services. Chief Ikwuemesi is an indigene of Nkwelle Ogidi, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State.

Victor Ikwuemesi & Sosoliso Arlines Limited

The idea of setting up an airline was sold to Ikwuemesi by the Yugoslav ambassador to Nigeria. Ikwuemesi accepted the suggestion principally because the two airports in the South-East geopolitical zone were for years out of use; no flights were landing or taking off from there. He was distressed at the fact that the South-East was, in his own language, fast becoming a business and economic desert of Nigeria, even though its people are as individuals excellent contributors to Nigeria ‘s development ?. Despite failed attempts to convince a number of fellow wealthy easterners to join him in “thinking home”, Ikwuemesi remained undaunted.

His sole purpose for establishing the carrier was to change the sociopolitical landscape of a key component of the Nigerian federation which was unfortunately being schemed out of national affairs.

The two airports in the Southeast by 1999 when democratic rule was restored were no longer in use. People travelling from the Southeast to any other part of the country had to go by road, with all the incalculable costs and risks. Rather than thrown up his hands in the air in despair and lament about marginalization, as many of his people are wont to do, Chief Ikwuemesi decided to take the bull by the horn by establishing an airline to reopen the Enugu and Owerri airports. It is instructive enough that Enugu became the headquarters. It is to his credit and foresight that the two airports have remained open ever since.

Sosoliso Airlines was flying into Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, apart from Enugu and Owerri. Owing to its acute professionalism, it commanded tremendous customer loyalty. However, on December 10, 2005, its 1145 flight which took off from Abuja with mostly students of Loyola Jesuit College who were going home on holidays crashed at Port Harcourt International Airport. Only one person survived.

In its authoritative publication captioned “How blunders and neglect stoked an African tragedy”, The Wall Street Journal, after reviewing reports based on investigations by the Boeing Corporation, the Accident Investigation Bureau of Nigeria and its American counterpart, showed on October 1, 2007, that the crash owed to wind shear, that is, a sudden and dramatic change in the speed and direction of the wind. In other words, it was due to natural forces.

Yet, the deaths would have been averted if the drain at the airport had been close; the machine ran into the open drain with force after the pilot had successfully landed the aircraft. Consequently, its dual purpose kerosene (DPK) caught fire. To exacerbate matters, the fire service could not respond robustly, as its officers were to complain of a lack of critical items like hydrant. The result was the avoidable deaths of the passengers and crew.

The airline did not recover from the crash. It is regrettable that the authorities at the time did not address themselves to the core issues raised by the Sosoliso accident. They rather engaged in shadowboxing.

Victor Ikwuemesi Death

On April 14 2020, Victor Ikwuemesi gave up the ghost after battling with the pandemic coronavirus (COVID-19). Chief Victor Ikwuemesi died of coronavirus in the United Kingdom. Chief Victor Ikwuemesi was admitted in a London hospital for an undisclosed illness, and later tested positive for coronavirus in the hospital. Victor Ikwuemesi was placed in ICU on oxygen. But when the oxygen was removed for him to eat he couldn’t breath on his own. Chief Victor was later placed on a ventilator and he died shortly after.

Top Facts About Victor Ikwuemesi

1.  Chief Ikwuemesi was the Chairman/Managing Director of Sosoliso Airlines.

2. He is the younger brother to Mrs Victoria Chukwudimma- Nee Ikwuemesi ( Mother of the Wife of the Deputy Governor of Anambra State, Her Excellency, Chief Mrs Oby Okeke ).

3. Chief Victor Ikwuemesi died on Monday in a London Hospital over a brief Illness.