The
Senate on Tuesday summoned the Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah,
and heads of agencies under her ministry, to explain the real state
of the nation’s aviation industry.
The invitation followed Thursday’s
Associated Airlines plane crash in which about 15 out of the 20
passengers and crew on board, had been confirmed dead.
The 23-year-old aircraft was conveying
the body of a former Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, to Akure,
when it crashed barely a minute after take-off from the Murtala
Muhammed Airport in Ikeja, Lagos.
Hours after the accident, a Saudi
Arabia-bound Kabo Air plane with 400 passengers on board made an
emergency landing in Sokoto on Friday when it lost its two main body
tyres.
The decision to summon Oduah was taken
after the Senators exhaustively discussed a motion moved by Senator Hope
Uzodima. In the motion, the lawmaker drew the attention of his
colleagues to the Associated Airlines plane crash and expressed
serious concern that the incident had underscored the need for the
country to re-examine its aviation sector.
He also noted that the incident, the
seventh between June 2, 2012 and October 3, 2013, was “suggestive of a
deep-seated systemic problem that must be unravelled and resolved to
avert futher occurrences.”
Other senators, in their contributions,
also lamented that reports on past crashes had offered recommendations
on what should be done by the relevant agencies in the aviation sector
to avoid future occurences.
For instance, Senator Abiye Sekibo,
challenged the Senate Committee on Aviation to, as part of its oversight
functions, find out the airworthiness of all the aircraft on the fleet
of the airlines in the country.
Senator Barnabas Gemade,who noted that
the aviation ministry had improved facilities at the nation’s
airports, said there was an urgent need for professionals to be fully
in charge of the sector to enhance its efficiency.
Senator Oluremi Tinubu noted that
Nigeria had the worst airport runway in the world, a situation she
argued, posed a great risk to air travellers.
She also described as frightening and
disheartening, statements credited to the aviation minister that
accidents were “an act of God and therefore inevitable.”
Senator Smart Adeyemi said his
findings showed that the plane was supposed to be on a test flight to
Akure and therefore should not have carried passengers.
Adeyemi added that the plane was being
repaired and had not been flown for sometime hence there were engineers
on board to ascertain its performance.
Other senators submitted that the
current situation demanded an holistic approach because the sector was
already in a state of emergency.
The session, presided over by the
Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, observed a one-minute
silence for the victims and condemned the inability of relevant
agencies to unearth the causes of air crashes in the country.
The senators therefore unanimously
agreed to summon Oduah and the chief executive officers of all the
agencies under her supervison to explain the true state of the aviation
sector.
Ekweremadu, while ruling on the
submission of the Senate, however, clarified that the invitation of
Oduah and others was not an indictment of their competence.
Rather, he said it would afford the
aviation chiefs, an opportunity to state their efforts at implementating
past reports and recommendations of the Senate aimed at ensuring safety
and sanity in the industry.
He said, “The observation of lapses in
the aviation industry expressed by senators is not also an indictment
of the Senate Committee on Aviation. The senators expreseed frustration
on the issue and not that they passed a vote of no confidence in the
committee.”
The Chairman, Senate Committee on
Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, while
briefing journalists after the plenary, said the minister and the
aviation chiefs would appear before the Senators after their
resumption on October 22.
He noted that the Senate suspended
plenary till after the Sallah celebration so that all the reports
pending before it would be submitted.
Shortly after the Senate resolved to
summon her, Oduah said the Federal Government had no fact yet on the
insurance status of the crashed aircraft.
The minister, who also explained again
that Dana Air’s operations were suspended due to operational lapses,
said additional financial assistance would be given by the government to
domestic airlines to enable them to keep afloat.
She told journalists in Abuja that it
would not be right for the government to speculate on the insurance
status of the ill-fated aircraft since the report on a probe by the
Accident Investigation Bureau had yet to be released.
She said, “For now, if I answer you, it
would amount to speculation because AIB, whose responsibility it is
to know, has not finished with the investigation. We don’t have enough
facts for me to tell you what it is that you want me to tell you. So, I
don’t know what you are talking about.
“I really want to beg every one of you
(journalists) to stop speculating. We do not speculate on accidents and
this is because we are going to have a preliminary report. The report
will tell you the exact state of the insurance, and whether it is there
or not and you will have it as facts.”
Media reports had it that the aircraft
might not have been insured as it claimed. The airline’s alleged
insurer, Nigeria Reinsurance Plc, denied having any insurance contract
with the carrier.
The second insurance firm named by the
carrier, Sema Insurance, is neither registered with the National
Insurance Commission nor an insurance broking firm known by NAICOM.
On the suspension of Dana Air
operations, Oduah said it was not a witch-hunt but was based on
investigation which was carried out on the carrier.
She said, “Certification of airlines is
a routine and regular exercise and in the course of certification,
there may be operational lapses and when they are noticed, we have to
look at them again and take the necessary steps that would ensure
safety and security.
“If somebody has high BP (blood
pressure) and takes medications and the sickness calms down, if he stops
his medication wrongly, what do you think would happen? If an airline
has a clean bill and fails to maintain it, it will be suspended.”
The minister also said the government
would by the end of this month announce when a national carrier would
commence operations.
“I guarantee you that before the end of this month we will announce it, ”she told the journalists.
On the financial assistance to airlines, Oduah explained that it would be a single digit interest facility.
“This will be for a period of 20 years
and it will help boost their operations. We are currently waiting for
approval by the Central Bank of Nigeria,” she added.
Also, the Managing Director, Nigerian
Airspace Management Agency, Mr. Nnamdi Udoh, stated that the pilot of
the Kabo air plane that had a burst tyre while landing in Sokoto had
been suspended.
He said, “The airline had investigated
and found out that it was an operator fault and as I speak to you, Kabo
Air has suspended the pilot that was involved.”
PUNCH
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