Air Nigeria, the national carrier and second-largest airline of the West African nation, has been grounded for safety checks.

The move comes days after one of the country's worst air crashes resulted in the deaths of all 153 people on board.

Thousands of Air Nigeria passengers are now left stranded as rumours of financial troubles and an engineers’ strike adds to the challenges facing the carrier.

The most damning claims, however, come from John Nnorom, former finance director, who says the airline's engineers are under commercial pressure to certify unfit aircraft for travel.

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege reports from Abuja.