 |
Minister of State for Power, Mrs. Zainab Kuchi |
Indications
emerged on Wednesday that the Power Holding Company of Nigeria had
abandoned four helicopters worth millions of dollars at the Murtala
Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
Investigations by our correspondent
revealed that the German-made Bolkow 105 helicopters had not flown in
the last one year following internal disagreements among some key PHCN
officials on how they should be run.
The helicopters are used for
surveillance of PHCN installations across the country, including
detection of faults arising from bad or disjointed cables, especially in
remote locations that are difficult to access by road.
Further findings revealed that the
helicopters were being maintained for PHCN by Pan African Airlines,
which is based at theLagos airport.
Sources familiar with the situation said
Pan African could not carry out maintenance on the helicopters any more
because PHCN was not forthcoming in terms of providing necessary funds
for the continuous operation and maintenance of the aircraft. As a
consequence, the aircraft became grounded.
According to the sources, the
multimillion dollar helicopters did not fly for in the last one year
before the latest development.
A source close to the situation
explained, “The helicopters have not been flying for a very long time
now. At least, in the last one year, I am sure they have not flown. The
problem is that some PHCN officials want to be making money from running
the helicopter section.
“Some top officials too are showing
interest in making money. All these created some differences in opinion,
a situation which has left the helicopters grounded for a very long
time.”
A top official of Pan African Airlines,
who preferred to speak under the condition of anonymity, said the
grounding of the helicopters was not the fault of his company.
He confirmed that PHCN was not
forthcoming in terms of funds and other logistics necessary for the
continuous maintenance of the helicopters.
The Pan African official said, “We
provided maintenance for the helicopters, but that maintenance stopped
two years ago, and PHCN has not come since then. The reason the
helicopters are on the ground, we don’t know.”
The General Manager, Public Affairs, PHCN, Mrs. Efuru Igbo, could only confirm that the helicopters belonged to the company.
She, however, claimed not to be aware
the aircraft had stopped flying for a long time, adding that they were
being used for ‘line tracing’ by the company.
Igbo asked our correspondent to get in
touch with the Assistant General Manager, Eko Electricity Distribution
Company Plc, Mr. Pekun Adeyanju, to link him with one Captain Mike in
charge of the helicopters.
When contacted, Adeyanju said he did not
know the pilot Igbo was referring to. He advised our correspondent to
link up with PHCN’s General Manager in charge of Transmission through
Igbo.
When our correspondent contacted Igbo
again, she did not pick the repeated calls made to her telephone line
and she neither responded to a text message sent to the number.
The Assistant General Manager,
Transmission Company of Nigeria, Mr. Dave Fabiyi, directed our
correspondent to the Assistant General Manager, Aviation, PHCN, Captain
Mike Ighofose.
Efforts to get Ighofose to comment on
the matter failed as calls made to his line did not get through. Sources
at the General Aviation Terminal of the Lagos Airport said he was out
of the country.
Sources at the GAT, where the
helicopters are currently parked, said two of the choppers had become
unserviceable, while the remaining two were still serviceable.
They explained that with routine
maintenance, the two serviceable aircraft would start flying, while the
two unserviceable aircraft would require “heavy maintenance” to fly
again.
The sources could not estimate how much it would cost to get the aircraft back to operation.
Aviation experts said PHCN’s action was a
waste of public resources, pointing out that aircraft were not meant to
be kept on the ground for a very long time.
According to Wikipedia, the
Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Bo 105 is a light, twin-engine, multi-purpose
helicopter developed by Bölkow of Stuttgart, Germany.
It features a revolutionary hinge-less
rotor system; at that time, a pioneering innovation in helicopters when
it was introduced into service in 1970.
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