212man,
Arik started after your departure and now have one of the most modern fixed wing fleets in the country. As you can gather from reading the African Aviation page, they're not without controversy (particularly concerning allegations made in the press about their initial funding). However, they are being used quite a lot by companies now and in Port Harcourt, for example, they're one of only 2 operators still operating into NAF Base since Virgin Nigeria pulled out. Check in can be rather chaotic (but then that hasn't changed with any of the airlines since you left
) but they seem to be
doing quite well. Bristow use them a lot for flights to/from NAF Base.