DUD CHEQUE TEARS ARIK AIR, INTERCONTINENTAL BANK APART
One of Nigeria leading airlines, Arik Air is allegedly involved in a case of dud cheque, which was allegedly issued to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
Those who should know divulged that Arik Air issued an Intercontinental Bank cheque of N2 million to NCAA as tenement fees, but sources said that NCAA couldn’t cash the cheque as it was not honoured by the bank.
It was also gathered that the management of Arik Air is now angry with Intercontinental Bank for allowing the public know that the airline is in a financial mess.
An insider in the airline said that NCAA did not follow normal banking procedure, which why the cheque did not clear.
A source at Arik Air, who preferred anonymity, added that the airline thought that NCAA had cashed the money because the cheque was not returned, and that it was surprised to see a letter sent by NCAA claiming that the bank did not honour the cheque.
Intercontinental Bank is one of the several banks through which customers of Arik Airline pay for tickets.
The bank, according to an insider, has sent a letter to Arik Air to the effect that they could not continue to cover-up for their financial mess as the issue might affect their stand with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Sources however, said that Arik Air has prepared a memo, which will be made public in few weeks to inform customers not to pay any cash into its Intercontinental Bank account henceforth, since, according to sources, the bank is not ready to keep its mouth shut over the financial mess of the airline.
When a phone call was made to Mr. Adebanji Ola, the Media Officer of Arik Air, he denied knowledge of the memo, and insisted that the airline is not in a financial mess.
“Arik Air is not in a financial mess and the issue of the dud cheque with NCAA was borne out of lack of communication between the two entities and as regards Intercontinental Bank, our decision will be made public very soon,” Adebanji said.
Efforts made to get officials of Intercontinental Bank to speak on the issue proof abortive as at press time.