Air Nigeria: Rep tackles Sirika over allegation of 5% demand

Air Nigeria: Rep replies Sirika, says he never demanded 5%  equity

A former chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Nnaji Nnolim, has responded to an allegation that he demanded five per cent equity in the controversial Nigeria Air.

Ex-Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, made the allegation while on Arise TV interview on Sunday.

Sirika had said, “He (Nnaji) asked (us) to give him five percent of Nigeria Air to carry him along with his people, and I said to him at that time that honourable, this is a bidding process that has taken place, and some people won.”

The former minister was responding to the lawmaker’s remarks that the launch of the national carrier was “fraudulent”.

But Nnolim in his reaction to the allegation said Sirika was a drowning man and challenged him to speak directly to the issue.

In a statement on Sunday, he said the former minister came up with the claim because “I remained consistent in demanding that he followed due process”.

He said the committee had commenced a probe of the former minister and his team since last year.

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“Ordinarily, l would not have bothered to reply to his allegations of my demand for five percent equity in Nigeria Air as he claimed during his interview on Arise Television but l believe l owe my constituents and indeed Nigerians, a duty to put the records straight,” he said.

He also said, “It is on record that last year when the minister announced Ethiopian Airlines as the core investor in Nigeria Air, my committee which was also inundated with petitions from various stakeholders regarding that announcement invited the minister and his team to furnish the committee with the details of the project.

“The committee requested the evidence of the bid process that gave Ethiopian Airlines the award and the full business case as prepared by the Nigerian Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) which was supposed to spell out the details of all the investors and their equity contributions.

“Sirika at that meeting said the full business case was still being worked out by the ICRC and promised to make it available to the committee as soon it was ready which he failed to do before Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) took the ministry to court and got injunction restraining it from going ahead with the project.”

The lawmaker said all enquiries were suspended to avoid court contempt.

Nnolim said he also had an encounter with the former minister when there was a threat of mass resignations by key officials of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) over alleged pressure from the ministry to give waivers to Nigeria Air for its air operators certificate (AOC).

Background

The purported Nigeria Air was discovered to be a hired aircraft from Ethiopian Airlines, repainted and rebranded in Nigeria colours.

The scam has put the country in bad light globally.