Allen Ifechukwu Onyema CON (born 1964) is a Nigerian lawyer and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer of

Air Peace Air Peace is a private Nigerian airline founded in 2013 with its head office in Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria, the flag carrier and the largest airline of Nigeria and West Africa. Air Peace, which provides passenger and charter services, serves the ...

, which he established in 2013.

Early life

He was born in March 1964 in

Benin City Benin City is the capital and largest city of Edo State, Edo State, Nigeria. It is the fourth-largest city in Nigeria according to the 2006 census, after Lagos, Kano (city), Kano, and Ibadan, with a population estimate of about 3,500,000 as of ...

to Michael and Helen Onyema as the first of nine children. He hails from

Anambra State Anambra State is a Nigerian state, located in the southeastern region of the country. The state was created on August 27, 1991. Anambra state is bounded by Delta State to the west, Imo State to the south, Enugu State to the east and Kogi State ...

, Nigeria.

Education

Allen studied law at the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public research university in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1948 as University College Ibadan, one of many colleges within the University of London. It became an independent university in 196 ...

and graduated in 1987. He attended the

Nigerian Law School The Nigerian Law School is an educational institution set up by the Government of Nigeria in 1962 to provide a Nigerian legal education to foreign-trained lawyers, and to provide practical training for aspiring Legal Practitioners in Nigeria. ...

and was called to Bar in 1989. He attended several Schools including Government College, Ughelli, Delta state. He left Government College in 1984 having obtained his Higher School Certificate and was directly offered admission to read law at the Nigeria’s Premier University, The University of Ibadan in the same year. It was in the University of Ibadan that his appetite for peace made him to lead a group of nine other students to travel to the ancient city of Zaria to quell a raging religious and ethnic riot that claimed lives. As a result of the publicity he and his colleagues received on return to their campus, their enthusiasm grew and this led to the formation of a group known then as Eminent Friends’ Group – a group formed with the objectives of promoting ethnic harmony amongst Nigeria’s diverse ethnic nationalities and fighting the incidence of violence of all forms. Upon graduation from the university in 1987, he established branches of the organization in all the states of the federation. While in the Nigerian law school in 1987, he combined his studies with social activism bothering on engendering peace in Nigeria.

Indictment

In 2019, the US

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

issued an

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a legal person, person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felony, felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concep ...

against Allen Onyema, on the grounds of money laundering and bank fraud. Onyema was accused of falsifying documents used for the purchase of aeroplanes for Air Peace and using those to fund purchases of luxury cars and high-end shopping. Onyema denies these allegations. As of May 2022, the trial of a suspected co-conspirator is set to begin in August 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Onyema, Allen Living people 1964 births Nigerian businesspeople University of Ibadan alumni Igbo people People from Anambra State