June 06, (THEWILL) – Two days after THEWILL published a damning report on the fraudulent Nigeria Air project, the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Tuesday, called for the suspension of the establishment of the national carrier.
The lawmakers in the lower legislative chamber of the National Assembly, also called for prosecuting those involved in the unveiling of the national carrier by the previous administration, describing the exercise as a fraud.
The resolutions were reached on Tuesday during the committee’s interactive session with some government officials and other relevant bodies in the sector at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja.
The Chairman of the Committee, Nnolim Nnaji (PDP, Enugu), read the resolutions of the Committee at the end of the interaction.
The session was attended by members of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), representatives of the Ministry of Aviation and others.
An aircraft purportedly belonging to the national carrier was unveiled by the immediate past Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport premises in Abuja on 26 May.
Reports have revealed that the said aircraft immediately returned to its owner, Ethiopian Airlines, after the unveiling of the purported ‘Air Nigeria’ by the former aviation minister, Hadi Sirika.
THEWILL had in its weekly edition of June 4, 2023, published a chronology of the questionable national carrier project executed by the immediate past government of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
In the report entitled, ‘Nigeria Air: Tragedy of N85bn Rot Buhari Left Behind’, this newspaper showed how the former minister, Sirika, pursued the project in a manner that betrayed his priority for a ‘personal carrier’ over a national carrier from the outset.
The ex-aviation minister, said to be a blood relative of former President Muhammadu Buhari, committed well over N85 billion on the corruption-ridden Nigeria Air in the most unconscionable manner, yet failed to deliver the aircraft.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
