A northern group, Arewa Patriotic Youth Front (APYF), has concluded plans to hold a one million-man march over what they described as the unfair trial of Barr. Allen Onyema, CEO of Air Peace.
US authorities had accused Mr Onyema of moving suspicious funds from Nigeria to American bank accounts between 2017 and 2018, with the funds allegedly disguised as being meant to purchase aircraft.
Although Mr Onyema has denied wrongdoing, he is wanted in the US over the bank fraud charges filed against him and a co-defendant at the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta since 2019.
But reacting to Mr Onyema’s trial, the group’s national coordinator, Comrade Bagudu Joseph, and his secretary, Alhaji Yusuf Ahmed, said the group was fully prepared to stage the protest at the US embassy in Abuja to protect the businessman’s image.
“We will, therefore, not fold our arms and watch our best hands get drawn by obvious enemies of our people and our country,” they said.
According to the group, “We will resist these continuous rehearsals of falsehood targeted at Barr. Allen Onyeama.
“Barr. Allen Onyeama, CEO of Air Peace Limited, is a shining light and a worthy role model for Nigerian youth who has transformed the aviation sector in Nigeria, thereby creating jobs for thousands of Nigerian youths.
“His demonstrated passion and love for Nigeria is only equal to that of our founding fathers, no wonder he’s quick to identify with ordinary Nigerians anywhere in the world who are in dire need.
This he demonstrated clearly during the Covid-19 pandemic and during the xenophobic attacks on our fellow countrymen in South Africa, to mention but a few.