Here is an old African proverb worth thinking about: when the gods are angry at a person, they first make him mad. This period appears to be one of business scandals as so many corporate giants in Nigeria are having their comfort rugs suddenly pulled out from under them. It seems as if it is now the turn of Allen Onyema, the CEO of the private Nigerian airline, Air Peace. However, the scandal involving him appears capable of ending his business reign.
An American woman named Ebony Mayfield has come out to intimate that Onyema’s hands are nowhere near as clean as he wants the Nigerian government, his business associates, and Nigerians at large, to believe. Specifically, Mayfield confessed to a United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, in Atlanta, that Onyema paid her a huge sum of money to sign fake documents and engineer a bank fraud.
Speaking out in an attempt to absorb herself of too much guilt and lighten the court’s judgment, Mayfield explained how Onyema approached her with a business deal. According to her, all Onyema wanted her to do was to act as the manager of his Atlanta-based Springfield Aviation Company in 2016 to sell commercial aircraft and their parts. However, she was not qualified for such an enterprise seeing as she was only a bartender and nightclub dancer.
During her alleged play as Springfield’s manager, Mayfield reportedly signed fake documents for Onyema which enabled him to transfer funds ($20 million) from a Nigerian bank to Springfield’s account abroad. The purpose of the transferred funds was to purchase five Boeing 737 passenger planes from Springfield. However, Onyema reportedly moved $15 million of the transferred funds to his personal savings account with a Wells Fargo Bank branch in Atlanta, Georgia, after paying Mayfield $20,000 for her role in the alleged play.
Currently, Mayfield risks five years in jail for her part in the alleged fraudulent activity. In the meantime, Onyema has denied all the allegations and is yet to appear in court.
