Igwe Ezenwa: Made of a standard by Mbazulike Amaechi - ITREALMS

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Excerpts from tribute to HRH Igwe Peter Ezenwa MFR by first republic Minister, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, on his final Ofala recently in Oba Idemili LGA, Anambra State.

"One significant thing I will say that many people did not know is that the first indigenous airline that was to run in Nigeria was known as Standard Airways, this airways was formed in 1966 by a company formed by Igwe Peter Ezenwa, from Oba, On the board were Joe Nwankwu, from Abagana, Edward Ebo from Ezinifite, all of Anambra State, John Anyaehie from Nkwerre, in Imo State, and my humble self, Mbazulike Amechi, the five of us formed the company and then acquired two brand new planes .

We had our four pilots, Nnachi, John and Emma Ngwu, and Felix Ofor who was to be the General Manager of the airline, but just about the time for it to take off, the crisis of military take over erupted in the North and the Planes were on the way for delivery to us, in fact the bank handling the transaction was to allow them be flown from the United States, but when the news of the war broke out in 1967 the insurance company cabled the cancellation of the aircrafts, that they will not be able to cover the cost and risk of aircraft being flown into a war area. So we asked the manufacturers to take the two Planes back to their country and hold on for us for six months thinking the war will end in six months and they held on for six months but the war did not end in one year and so we asked for the refund for the cost of the aircraft and they deducted some money and then refunded and deposited the money at ACB, in London.

However, when the money was deposited there in London, sometime in 1969 at the peak of the war, Odumegwu Ojukwu wrote to us as Biafrans, that we should surrender the foreign exchange to Biafran government, that when the war ends the government will refund us, so we held a meeting and did as he requested and we allowed the government to take over the whole money in ACB London and the war ended the way it ended and we lost everything."

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