Nigeria's Arik Air founder eyes lawsuit over government takeover

The founder of Nigeria's largest airline Arik Air, placed in receivership earlier this week, accused the government of seizing Arik to meet a political goal of creating a "national carrier" and said he would challenge the move in court. State-owned "bad bank" AMCON said Thursday the move arose from Arik's inability to pay workers and creditors. Arik is West Africa's biggest airline by passenger numbers but has been hard hit by Nigeria's currency crisis as its customers are invoiced in naira but fuel suppliers are paid in dollars. Arik founder Michael Arumemi-Ikhide said he believed the government staged the move after a team travelled overseas in search of partners but were turned down and advised to work with the decade-old Arik. "This (takeover) was designed by the government. Ever since this government came into power there has been the ambition to have a national carrier," Arumeni-Ikhide said. "We are going to challenge the forceful takeover in court. By earlier next week we will be filing the case." <br/>