The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Air Nigeria

  • House summon ex-minister Sirika over Air Nigeria project

    House summon ex-minister Sirika over Air Nigeria project

    The House of Representatives yesterday mandated its Committee on Aviation to summon a former Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika for a briefing on the status of the Air Nigeria project.

    He is to brief the committee on the project – from the point he handed it over and provide insights into a wide range of controversies and allegations surrounding the project.

    The House also invited Aviation and Aerospace Development Minister Festus Keyamo to brief the committee on the national carrier project.

    Also invited are the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), to brief the committee on the Air Nigeria project and its certifications, as applied to the national carrier.

    The House also invited the eight local airlines and their associations to enable the Green Chamber have a full overview of the project.

    The committee is also to carry out a forensic audit of the process of Air Nigeria and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.

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    The House urged the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the ministries of Budget, National Planning and Finance to furnish it with requisite data and financial resources on the project.

    These resolutions followed the adoption of a motion, titled: Need to Investigate the National Air Carrier Project, moved by Tarkighir Dickson.

    The House recalled that in 2016, Sirika proposed an aviation roadmap with a national carrier as the signature project to deliver it to Nigerians by the end of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

    It said the former minister approached Ethiopian Airlines a few days before the handover to provide an aircraft that could be made available to Nigerians as an aircraft belonging to

    Air Nigeria while the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had issued an Air Transport Licence to Air Nigeria as the name for the proposed national carrier.

    The House said it was aware that the last administration spent billions of naira, ostensibly to acquire a new national carrier but the status of the project remained unclear, regardless of the billions of taxpayers’ funds utilised on the project.

  • Air Nigeria: I was never arrested by FIRS, says Jimoh Ibrahim

    Air Nigeria: I was never arrested by FIRS, says Jimoh Ibrahim

    •‘NICON Group sold airline’s shares in 2012’

    The Group Managing Director of Energy Group of Companies, Mr Jimoh Ibrahim, has denied reports that he was arrested and detained by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) over N6.8 billion Air Nigeria allegedly owed it.

    He described the report as wicked, concocted and sheer imagination of the writer.

    Ibrahim, in a statement yesterday after the story went viral online, said the story, published by Sahara Report, was borne out of mischief and aimed at tarnishing his image.

    The businessman said he would have ignored the report but for need to put the record straight.

    He said: “Our company, the NICON Group, purchased 48 per cent shares of Air Nigeria sometime in 2010 and the FIRS came with alleged tax liabilities for the period of 2006 to 2010.

    “They claimed that he who buys assets buys the liabilities of the company. That was in 2012. We requested for reconciliation of the taxes, which was not conclusive.

    “We closed down the airline and sold our shares to a commercial bank in Nigeria. Rather than pursue the new owner for the taxes, the FIRS instituted a civil suit against me at the Federal High Court.

    “Whereas the same law of ‘who buys the assets, buys the liabilities’ should apply. This is why the FIRS should pursue the liability of Air Nigeria with the new owners.”

    On his encounter with officials of the FIRS, Ibrahim said: “…The FIRS’ Enforcement Unit yesterday solicited my assistance about the new buyer. I opted to give them the full details and documents.

    “Before I finished doing that, I read in Sahara Reporters that I had been arrested and detained for N6.8 billion fraud, which is not true.”

    The businessman explained that before he gave the FIRS the details of the new owners of Air Nigeria, the agency had alleged that Air Nigeria procured tax papers in 2010 for expatriates.

    “But I asked them how that concerned a board chairman. I asked them to ask the Executive Director (Finance), John Nnorom, whose responsibility falls under that.

    “We are genuine business people and we need a proper environment to operate our business. If I have committed any offence in becoming a non-executive chairman of a company like Air Nigeria where I do not have personal share, charge me to court and wait for the judgment of the court. If an officer of a corporation committed an offence, such as forgery of tax papers and it is true, look for the officer and charge him to court, not the board chairman of the corporation,” Jimoh added.

  • Flight cancellation: Court slams N5m damages on Air Nigeria

    Flight cancellation: Court slams N5m damages on Air Nigeria

    A Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered Air Nigeria to pay N5 million to one Mr. Hakeem Ogunniran as damages for cancelling his flight from Nigeria to South Africa.

    Justice Okon Abang gave the order while delivering judgment in a suit filed by the plaintiff against the airline over loss of business due to cancellation of flight.

    Abang awarded the sum as general damages for the inconvenience and emotional trauma suffered by the plaintiff as a result of the defendant’s negligence.

    “The defendant ought to have put in place measures to ensure that a passenger does not incur further expenses where there is a flight cancellation.

    “The defendant is hereby ordered to refund to the plaintiff the difference in value of the cost of the plaintiff’s business class ticket,” the judge said.

    The court also ordered the defendant to refund the cost of the economy class ticket of the alternative airline which the plaintiff was eventually made to fly.

    “The defendant was also ordered to pay the expenses which the plaintiff incurred on his journey back to Nigeria through Ghana, as well as cost of township transportation in Ghana.”

    The judge added that the airline should pay post-judgment interest on the damages sum per annum, until it was fully liquidated.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Ogunniran filed the suit in December 2012, claiming damages for loss of business due to a cancelled flight by the airline.

    The plaintiff averred in his statement of claim that he had paid for a business class ticket for a business trip from Nigeria to South Africa on the defendant’s airline on December 14, 2012.

    Ogunniran said that on arrival at the airport and after waiting for several hours, it was announced that the flight had been cancelled.

    “I was so devastated that I sat on the floor of the departure hall of the airport in anguish over the loss of my business opportunity worth millions of naira,’’ he said.

    The plaintiff further averred that the defendant paid no compensation to affected passengers, but only left them to their fate.

  • Customers besiege Air Nigeria Abuja office for refunds

    Some customers yesterday besieged the office of Air Nigeria in Abuja to demand the refund of the money they spent in buying flight tickets they did not utilise.

    The development is as a result of the suspension of its operation by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) since June due to lack of maintenance.

    Consequently, the Chairman of the airline, Mr Jimoh Ibrahim, shut down the company for one year with effect from September 10, and sacked 550 members of staff, while retaining 50.

    According to News Agency of Nigeria, some of the customers said the management of the airline is yet to refund their money and that they were asked to contact the head office of the airline in Lagos.

    One of the affected customers, Olumuyiwa Okunade said he has been to the Abuja office on several occasions for the refund of his money.

    He said

    the few workers he met at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, refused to pay attention to his complaints.

    Another customer, Chief Chinyere Anyamele, said a notice on the door directed complainants to Air Nigeria’s head office, adding that it would cost more money to get to Lagos.

    “Is the airline indirectly telling us to forfeit our money? It is not easy for someone who bought an air ticket in Abuja to travel down to Lagos for a refund.

    “The Consumer Protection Council (CPC) and the NCAA should do something about this,” she said.

    Mr Ambros Dickson said: “I am not a Nigerian, but I use the airline because of its name, thinking that it is better. But now, I can see that they are all the same,’’ he said.

    Pastor Sola Ogunmodimu, another customer, described the development as fraudulent.

    “It is a fraudulent act. Even before now, the airline was not treating passengers rightly. It is not customer’s fault that the airline failed in its operations.

    “After sacking the workers, they are also suposed to attend to the customers whom they have collected airfares from.

     

    “I am here again today to check if I will meet anybody. I have gone to their office at Transcorp, but they kept directing me to their head office,” Ogunmodimu said.

     

    NAN also recalls that the chairman of the airline also announced the suspension of its local, regional and international flights based on what he described as “disloyalty of its staff”.

     

    In a statement, the chairman said it was difficult to continue further investment in the carrier with the high level of staff disloyalty and weak business environment.

     

    Ibrahim, in the statement, said 50 loyal members of staff had been selected with a mandate to recommence business within 12 months.

     

  • Unions give Air Nigeria ultimatum on staff pay

    Unions give Air Nigeria ultimatum on staff pay

    Aviation unions under the aegis of the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) and the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), have issued a seven day ultimatum to the management of Air Nigeria to pay up all staff salaries, including their benefits and entitlements.

    Speaking to newsmen during a peaceful protest at the NUATE secretariat, President of NAAPE, Mr Isaac Balami David, pointed warned that if within seven days, the management of Air Nigeria fails to meet the demands of the workers, the unions would take appropriate actions against the airline.

    “We are giving the authority of Air Nigeria seven days ultimatum. If nothing happens, NAAPE will communicate to the press and tell them the next line of action that the union is going to take,” he said.

    Amongst issues Balami raised were arrears of salaries of staff not paid for four months, running from May through August 2012, and unpaid pensions, adding that the management of the airline could not just lay off its staff like that, without giving them all their entitlements before laying them off.

    “In addition to the above, Jimoh Ibrahim and Air Nigeria must immediately fulfil the following; remit to the tax office all tax deducted from staff salaries for about two years to enable the workers obtain tax certificate as required by law, remit to the staff, thrift and co-operative society all monies deducted from staff salaries with accruable interests, to enable workers access and receive their exit benefits from the society; remit to Pension Fund Administrators with accruable interest all pension deductions from staff salaries for about a year, to enable the workers access and receive their due pensions as guaranteed by law; issue a proper letter of disengagement which must contain all entitlements due to each worker, and then enclose any legal payment advice in that regard and not sack in the pages of newspapers,” the NAAPE boss stated.

    Debunking the claim of Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim that his staff were not loyal, Balami said: ” We learnt that staff in Air Nigeria were earning 50 per cent less than what other staff in other airlines are earning yet they work with their whole heart, and somebody is saying that they are not loyal, what type of loyalty does the management of Air Nigeria want? he asked. “All we are saying is that Air Nigeria should pay salaries, once you pay your salaries on time, you do the needful, your staff will be loyal,” he added.
    Also speaking during the protest, President of NUATE, Comrade Safiyanu Mohammed, said the is in support of whatever decision the union might take, if the staff were not properly taken care of and the issues at stake not resolved amicably.

    He said: ”NAAPE has given the management seven days, so you can’t expect them to pre-empt their action before the expiration of seven days. After seven days, we will now know what will happen next.”

    A staff of Air Nigeria, said the management of the airline was not been fair to them, especially after they have given all their lives working for the airline, they were been layed off on a flimzy excuse that the workers were not loyal.

    “I will like to bring one issue on ground right now, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim has been going around telling the larger society that his staff are not loyal, I have worked with two other companies before I worked with Air, and I want to tell anybody who cares to listen that this type of workers that you see here are the most loyal people in the whole world, they are hard working, they have work ethics,” he said.