November 10, (THEWILL) – Ebonyi State Commissioner on Aviation and Transport Technology, Mrs Ngozi Obichukwu, has said that the peace and unity of the country are wholly dependent on the Nigerian Military.
Obichukwu made this known while addressing the National Defence College, Course 32 Study Team, who toured the Chuba Okadigbo’s International Airport, Onueke Ezza South LGA.
She said, “Over the years, the military in Nigeria has not changed, and the unity of Nigeria is dependent on them. The efforts the military is putting in to ensure that the country is peaceful can never be over-emphasised. Over the years, without the military, I don’t know what would have happened to Nigeria.
“And despite that, we have so many challenges around the world, not only in Nigeria, and some of the problems we have are not only peculiar to Nigeria alone”, she said.
The Commissioner, Obichukwu, further revealed the committed efforts of the Governor, Francis Nwifuru, to launch an airline for the state as soon as the airport’s runway is fixed.
“Our Governor, Francis Nwifuru has the peace and unity of Nigeria at heart, and he welcomes any programme that would promote peace and development of the country. The governor has a passion for making the Chuba Okadigbo International Airport functional, he made it possible for commercial flights to land and take off from here until it was discovered that the runway should be rehabilitated.
“The contractor, IDC, which is working on it, is on the ground, making sure that by May, next year, all the things needed for the runway are done. The governor is negotiating to have our own Ebonyi Airways, that’s our own flight. And as soon as the runway is ready, we launch it”, she said.
Obichukwu, who equally inaugurated a legal department to tackle issues of crisis in the Aviation Ministry noted that “the Inauguration of the legal department of the Chuba Okadigbo International Airport, is to ensure that there is peace, unity and order in the Aviation Ministry.
“Even the issues of contractors not doing their work well or contractors abandoning their works, or contractors being overpaid, contractors not being paid at all, will be trashed from the ministry before it gets to the public.
“Wherever we are in this country, you know that the issues of transport, especially flight cancellation, flight missing, overpayment, etc have constituted a lot of problems, and if we don’t track it from the ministry, it may escalate.
“These are people that try to ensure that there is peace and order in Nigeria and anything that is short of peace, there will be no development, no progress and their course is quite applauded.
“The innovation came at the right time, because by this time next year, once the runway is completed, there will be heavy activities here. This is an international airport, and there will be challenges but with the legal department, they will be able to handle these things. We are prioritizing the issue of security, peace and development”, she added.
In a remark, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Ben Odoh, tasked the newly inaugurated legal department of the Chuba Okadigbo’s International Airport to establish a space law centre that may translate into an Aviation School to cover the southeast region.
He equally tasked the legal department of the Airport to sponsor a course from their legal unit, for them to have Aviation law in the law faculties of Ebonyi State University and Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo, FUNAI.
Sunday Ogbu is a professional journalist with eight - twelve years experience that had worked with various print and online media. Sunday specializes in news reporting with the aim of educating his readers on current social, political and economic occurences within his area of coverage. Sunday is a strong force to work with in the media industry and uses his positive attitude and tireless energy to encourage others to work hard and succeed. Sunday is inspired daily by his wife and their four children. In his free time, Sunday likes sight-seeing, reading and discussing issues of societal interest.
