May 25, (THEWILL) – The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) have described the outgoing Minister of Aviation, Mr. Hadi Sirika’s statements and actions on Nigeria Air as flagrant disobedience of the orders of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, which halted the said moves to float the said airline until the determination of the substantive suit brought against it.
According to a statement signed by the Spokesperson of AON, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, the AON has no problems with the establishment of more airlines in the country but is against any contraption that is shadowy and not in the best overall interest of the country.
According to Okonkwo, the body needs the outgoing Minister to come forward, defend and counter the very damning submissions in its suit, stating that it is disturbing that a Minister is desperately hoodwinking the entire nation into accepting a massively flawed process just 72 hours to the end of his 7-year tenure in office as Minister of Aviation, even as the courts have halted him.
The AON said it is also aware, like the Minister and promoters of Nigeria Air, that the process of acquiring an Airline Operators Certificate (AOC) for Nigeria Air is only at stage one of the five-stage AOC process contrary to his televised statement that the Nigerian Air AOC process was at the concluding stage.
The statement dated 25th May, 2023, and made available to THEWILL read, “We have noted with dismay the comments by the outgoing Minister of Aviation, Mr. Hadi Sirika, to the effect that he will commence operations of Nigeria Air before Monday, May 29, 2023. He equally stated that an aircraft in Nigeria Air colours is on its way to Nigeria in less than 24 hours.
“All of these statements and actions are in flagrant disobedience of the orders of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, which halted the said moves by the Minister to float the said airline until the determination of the substantive suit brought by AON against it.
“Again, it is very disturbing that a Minister is desperately hoodwinking the entire nation into accepting a massively flawed process just 72 hours to the end of his 7-year tenure in office as Minister of Aviation, even as the courts have halted him.
“For the avoidance of doubt, AON welcomes the establishment of more airlines in Nigeria for we believe that the skies are big enough to accommodate all. However, AON is against any contraption that is shadowy and not in the best overall interest of the country.
“We need the outgoing Minister to come forward, defend and counter the very damning submissions in our suit.”
It stressed that what the outgoing Minister was doing will be an albatross to the incoming administration and may create problems, hence the new administration should not be blackmailed into accepting a contraption that would definitely and ultimately hurt the Nigerian economy and destroy millions of existing jobs in favour of one or two individuals and a foreign country by this hurried last minute desperation.
