Nigeria Air: House of Reps declare airline fraudulent
The House of Representatives shredded the Nigeria Air purported launch of May 26, 2023 the last working day of the Buhari-led administration stating that the former Minister, Hadi Sirika and other proponents sought to hoodwink the country.
This is coming as the managing director of Nigeria Air, Captain Dapo Olumide confirmed to the Senate that the unveiled aircraft used for the phoney launch was a chartered aircraft from Ethiopia hired for few days to showcase the logo to Nigerians and their shareholders.
Chairman of the House Committee on Aviation, Nnolim Nnaji, who declared the launch of Nigeria Air a fraud after the major stakeholders in the deal between the Federal Government and Ethiopian Airlines denied knowledge of the launch.
The Ministry of Aviation claimed Nigeria Air was only unveiled and not launched, which the committee dismissed as an attempt to divert the lawmakers’ attention.
Members of the committee were shocked when NAMA disclosed that the aircraft bearing Nigerian colours was on a chartered flight to Nigeria. On the charter of the aircraft, Captain Olumide equally revealed this when he appeared before the senate committee on Aviation to clarify on the myriads of controversies surrounding the prospective airline which was launched a day to the expiration of the last administration.
He added that the aircraft that came and left was a legitimate chartered flight which can be done by anyone who doesn’t have a licence as long as it is paid for. He noted that, for Nigeria to operate an aircraft, the aircraft must be Nigeria registered.
He added that the particular aircraft that was unveiled was not registered and came into Nigeria with a few days clearance from Ethiopia and was returned after use.
He further stated that Nigeria only has Air transport license which is one of two licenses required for operating an airline and does not permit one to carry out commercial services operations
The MD further revealed that for Nigeria Air to get the needed licence, Nigeria must have three aircrafts before the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority will give the country air license to fly and the three aircrafts must be Nigeria registered aircraft.
According to him there are five phases or steps one goes through to get the license and Nigeria is still in phase one of the process. While reacting to some reports that the passengers on board bought tickets, the MD refuted that the passengers were staff of Ethiopia airline that were brought in and at the end of the unveiling went back with their aircraft to Ethiopia
Captain Dapo also revealed that Nigeria Air is not at a point of operating the airline yet, as Nigeria Air does not have the requirements to operate as an airline in Nigeria
