By Premium Times
Nigeria’s Vice-President Kashim Shettima’s trip to the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) has been cancelled after a foreign object hit his plane during a stopover at JFK Airport in New York, the presidency said on Thursday night.
A statement by the special adviser to the president on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said the foreign object that hit the plane damaged the cockpit windscreen.
“President Tinubu, acting promptly, has approved a ministerial delegation to represent Nigeria at the summit … while the plane’s repair has commenced,” Onanuga said.
“The delegation, which will now represent Nigeria at the CHOGM in Samoa, is being led by the environment minister, Balarabe Abass Lawal.
It is the second time in five months that Shettima has had to cancel an official trip due to an aircraft problem.
In early May, he shelved a planned trip to the United States, where he was scheduled to represent President Bola Tinubu at the 2024 US-Africa Business Summit due to a technical fault with his aircraft.
