Reps declare N14.6bn Nigeria Air launch a fraud
…Aircraft bearing Nigeria Air logo, chartered from Ethiopian airline — Official
By Seun Ibiyemi
The House of Representatives has poked holes in the purported launch of Nigeria Air at the twilight of the administration of former President, Muhammadu Buhari, declaring it a fraud.
Chairman of the House Committee on Aviation, Nnolim Nnaji, 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.
Other stakeholders who confirmed the disclosure noted that a chartered flight could be painted in any colour and with any inscription.
Findings by Nigerian NewsDirect shows that the proposed national carrier, Nigeria Air, mired in controversy has yet to exit Stage One of the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) pursuit before it brought in a painted Ethiopian Airline aircraft to blindside Nigerians.
This is just as the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), has told the airline management that its Post Holders letters of commitment has a tenure of three (3) months and has expired.
In a letter addressed to the Managing Director of the prospective airline from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), NCAA/DOLTS/GEN/Vol. III/16123 titled Re: Request to Proceed to Phase Two of AOC Certification dated 2nd June, 2023 where the CAA clearly stated that the airline cannot move to the second phase without certain documents.
The letter to Nigeria Air read, “The Authority is in receipt of your letter dated 25th May, 2023 on the above subject matter. Quite contrary to our earlier letter of 16th May, 2023 which enumerated the documents to be submitted with the Formal Application Form OPS 002, your letter of request to proceed to Phase Two has no inclusion of a Formal Application Form and the necessary documents referenced in the Formal Application Form.
“Hence,” the letter continued, “the Certification Process cannot progress to Phase Two (2) without these required documents. Please be reminded that your Post Holders letters of commitment to Nigeria Air has a tenure of three (3) months and as such expires now. Accept the assurances of our highest regards.”
An anonymous source who spoke to our correspondent said that with the expiration of the tenure of placeholders the airline may have to start the process all over again.
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian Airline aircraft Boeing 737-800 with the registration number ET-APL, used for static display in Abuja has already flown to Turkey, Somalia, Mogadishu and other routes according to various flight tracking applications.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Biodun Olujimi said it was unfortunate that the former Minister of Aviation failed to involve the committee and other stakeholders in the Nigeria Air project.
“To state the obvious, he failed to carry members of the Committee along in virtually all ramifications despite the degree of respect members accorded him any time he was invited for meetings.”
Meanwhile, the Acting Managing Director of the Nigeria Air, Capt. Dapo Olumide, said that the aircraft that flew in with the logo of the airline was chartered from the Ethiopian Airline for the purpose of unveiling the logo.
Olumide said this on Tuesday in Abuja, when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Aviation.
He said that the airline had yet to secure an operating licence for full flight operations, saying that the processes were still at the early stages.
Olumide said that the aircraft was used pending the completion of the processes required for the operation of the airline.
He said his mandate was to secure an air operating certificate for the airline not necessarily to operate the airline but to secure a licence to fly.
“The aircraft that came in and left was a legitimate charter flight.
“Anyone of us here if we have a destination wedding in Senegal, we can charter an aircraft.
“You don’t need to have a licence to do that, you just charter an aircraft, an aircraft you paid for it, it will be brought here, take your passengers and off you go.
“And that is what we did. but in this case, it was to unveil the logo of Nigeria Air. Ever since 2018, all you have ever seen about Nigeria Air were pictures, drawings not the real aircraft, and we thought it was time to show what the real aircraft will look like also to let shareholders see,” Olumide said.
He added, “We have institutional investors, they are not in aviation but they are putting their money for 10 to 15 years, so they need to see what the actual aircraft will look like.
“So we brought it in here to show them what the aircraft will look like, then the social media dimension came into it.
“For us to get that licence which is my mandate, we must among other things have three aircraft before the NCAA will give us a licence and those three aircraft must be Nigerian registered aircraft.
“So when this aircraft came on a chartered flight, everybody said we have launched Nigeria Air, there are learned people in the aviation industry who could have countered that when social media came out, but they chose not to.”
In a swift response, an Aviation expert, Olumide Odunayo said “nothing can be farther from the truth, house Committee are writing their position.
“You cannot come and unveil, why telling the whole world before then that we are going to launch and it will fly on that day. They unveiled that name about 2017/18. It was unveiled the second time.
“This time around, they flew an aircraft owned by Ethopians, people operating a chartered flight. The only thing that connects Nigeria with the flight was the sticker of Nigeria Air that was put on the body and that aircraft operated a flight about four days before coming to Nigeria and on leaving Nigeria it flew passengers out of Nigeria on charter, and next day it commenced normal schedule flight. That was not a Nigerian aircraft but an aircraft on lease.
“Though, I see the position of House of Reps playing to gallery. All this while, these were going on, they were reading the newspapers, they were hearing what people were saying in the industry. They did not call for problem, nearly four days for them to vacate the office, they are calling everybody to bring documents. There is nothing they’ve said that we did not know.
“I think we should wait for the incoming House of Representatives when they have been sworn-in and see how well we can look further on how to cook reform.”
