A committee of the House of
Representatives has determined that
Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Rotimi
Amaechi, did not break any laws in the
incidents that led to the grounding of a
state-owned Bombardier Aircraft by the
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
The legislators stated that Rivers State
remained the real owner of the B700
Global Express Aircraft with Registration
Number N565RS with a valid insurance
cover that will expire in 2015.
The representatives also found there was
no truth to the claim by Nigeria’s aviation
agencies that the aircraft belongs to a
foreign country and has no valid papers.
These were some of the conclusions
contained in a report by the House
committee on Justice and Aviation. The
committee investigated the
circumstances that led to the
controversial grounding of the aircraft.
The 11-page report was jointly signed by
the House Committee Chairman on
Justice, Ali Ahmad, and his Aviation
counterpart, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha. The
House had composed the committee on
April 30, 2013 to probe the grounding of
the aircraft by the NCAA.
The committee sat on May 14, 2013 and
took testimonies from officials of the
NCAA, the Nigeria Aviation Management
Authority (NAMA), Aviation Minister, Stella
Oduah, as well as officials of Caverton
Helicopters and the Rivers State
Government.
The report stated, “The level of ineptitude
of NCAA is glaring in many respects:
failure to appreciate from a trust
agreement that an aircraft belongs to a
trustor-beneficiary even after their
attention is drawn to it and even as other
aircraft are registered in the name of the
same trustee; non-detection of an expired
flight clearance 24 days after the fact and
the detection was triggered by an
incident rather than as a matter of course;
even if the fact of falsification of
documents were true.”
The report added: “It was unacceptable
that NCAA did not detect this fact for over
six months; indeed NCAA boasted in a
letter of 29th April, 2013 that following
the incident it undertook a due diligence
of the status of the aircraft, but even then
it failed to determine the issue of
ownership and several others.
“Operational and other navigational
charges were received by NAMA and FAAN
and other agencies while operating the
aircraft and receipts issued without
raising alarm as to ownership of the
aircraft by Rivers State Government.
Part of the report also stated: “Perusal of
the Trust Agreement between Rivers State
Trustor and Bank of Utah Trustee would
have shown this fact of ownership; it is
distressing that NCAA and the Ministry
still fail or refuse to appreciate this simple
fact; but since the authorities did not
raise ownership issue with several other
aircraft having the name of Bank of Utah
Trustees, this allegation is in bad faith
and grossly unprofessional, as the owner,
Rivers State Government elected to
register the aircraft in the U.S. to save
money for the State and avoid
unnecessary bureaucracy.
“Rivers State Government, through
Caverton, applied to the Hon. Minister of
Aviation to import and operate the aircraft
in Nigeria but the application was not
consummated, and so it is being operated
in Nigeria as a foreign aircraft for private
use.
“As from 27 August, 2012 when it applied
on behalf of Rivers State Government to
import the aircraft, Caverton maintained
agency relationship with the Government;
although that relationship was abated
shortly thereafter with regard to
importation of the aircraft, other aspects
of the agency relationship continued
especially relating to applications for
flight clearance; however, all relationships
between the parties was brought to an
end by Caverton’s letter of denunciated to
NCAA dated 26 April, 2013.
“As owner and operator of the aircraft,
neither Rivers State Government nor its
officials forged or falsified any document
toward securing flight clearances or any
other license. Should top management of
Caverton deny transacting business with
Rivers State Government despite its
acquiescence of transactions between its
member of staff and the Government,
then its behavior smacks of administrative
laxity or negligence; alternatively, its
behavior lends credence to the assertion
that it was pressured to deny the
relationship.
“Caverton should be held accountable for
providing information that led NCAA to
ground the aircraft, contrary to provision
of the law;
“Rivers State Government operated its
aircraft with expired clearance between
2nd and 26th April, 2013; but several
other aircraft are suspected to be in
similar situation; isolation of Rivers State
Government for reprimand becomes
difficult to deny.
“Justifications for both the delayed start-
up in Akure and the continued grounding
of the aircraft in Port Harcourt amount to
taking an action and later shopping for
reasons: the faulty declaration of manifest
and failure to file flight plan ceased to be
a reason immediately the Director-
General of NAMA waived the infringement
and permitted the aircraft to depart
Akure, otherwise continuous citing
manifest and flight plan violations as
additional reasons for grounding the
aircraft has serious implications for the
Director-General; alleged fabrication of
documents by Rivers State Government
was unsubstantiated.
“Having overlooked the Akure violation,
the only justification known to law to
warrant regulatory action against the
aircraft is its operation with expired
clearance between 2nd and 26th April,
2013; however, NCAA botched the
opportunity to legally impose the sanction
as it failed to give a written notice to
Rivers State Government as required by
Section 35(5) Civil Aviation Act, Cap. C13
Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004;
“The handling by NAMA and NCAA of this
violation and their response actions
further confirm the previous findings of
the Joint Senate and House Committee on
Aviation on the crash of Dana Aircraft that
the Ministry of Aviation exerts undue
interference on routine operations of
these agencies.”
The report suggested that the House
Committee on Aviation be mandated to
scrutinize the reason for rampant foreign
registration of aircraft by their owners and
to further investigate all private-use
aircraft operating in the country in order
to sanitize their operation and ensure
enforcement of the law.

Source: saharareporters.com