Posted by By Kenneth Ehigiator on
LAGOS - CHAIRMAN of the Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson, yesterday arrived the country with his family without men of the Immigration Service on hand to clear them in.
LAGOS - CHAIRMAN of the Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson, yesterday arrived the country with his family without men of the Immigration Service on hand to clear them in.
Branson, who arrived with his aged parents and wife in a private Falcon jet marked F-GSNA, touched down at Murtala Mohammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, at about 1:00pm, while the aircraft taxied to and parked at the Presidential Wing of the airport.
Apparently waiting for men of the Nigerian Immigration Service to clear them into the country, the Virgin Group boss took quite sometime to disembark.
His parents and wife were the first to disembark, while Branson came down later into the warm embrace of Mr. John Adebanjo, Virgin Atlantic Airways' general sales agent in Nigeria.
Moments after the Bransons left the airport in a fairly long convoy, the immigration personnel surfaced from nowhere, running helter-skelter when they learnt a VIP movement had just taken place at that wing of the airport.
Immigration Service personnel are permanently deployed to the presidential wing of the airport to take care of VIPs coming into the country from other parts of the world, including non-Nigerians.
At press time yesterday, the immigration personnel had converged under a tree at the presidential wing laying ambush for the visitors whose aircraft was waiting to take them out of Lagos later in the day.
Asked why he was in the country, Sir Branson said he came visiting to have discussions with chairman of Virgin Nigeria, Felix Ohiwere, as well as chairman of V-Mobile concerning Virgin's plans to invest in the telecom company.
" I just came for a meeting with chairman of Virgin Nigeria and we are also in discussions about getting involved with the V-Mobile Network, investing a lot of money to expand the network.
"So, I'm meeting very special shareholders of V-Mobile Network today," said Branson, who had in the recent past indicated his interest to also invest in the rail sector in the country.