₦airaland Forum

Afam4eva: Why not complete it first before naming it after someone. And what does Osun even need an airport for. What a waste.

visalo: Bros better wake up from sleep. No governor can survive the political assort of a president. Don't be deceive by arrogant nature of your governor. If he refuse to tread easy way, He will end up worst than ibori situation

sayit247: what if the guy is paying taxes in Lagos? He has a right to his opinioons and to talk about this particular issue. Lagos no spoil and it belongs to all tax payers residing in the state

kettykings: I like this open expression of inadequacy

patrick89: You can't even appreciate the students' effort, slowpoke

guttentag: For those of you who tink oshiomolen is a human being, well i guess u are all in the same category '' UZU''

P D P forever !!! NO relenghtin, Oshiomolen will soon be judge, no be by gra gra

noblezone: By LOUIS IBA

The last might not have been heard of the controversy between regulatory institutions in Nigeria’s aviation sector and the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, over his recently grounded private aircraft. The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) yesterday said Caverton Helicopters had denied having any dealings with the Rivers State government over the management and operation of the Bombardier Global Express 5000 with registration number N565RS.

The aircraft has been the butt of controversy since Friday, April 26, when it was delayed at the Akure airport for the failure of its pilot to declare the flight’s manifest. On Tuesday, the Rivers State government while absolving itself from any form of breach of regulatory laws had announced that Caverton Helicopters was managing the aircraft for the state, including its documentation and clearance to operate in the country as a foreign registered aircraft.

But in a letter NCAA wrote to the Minister of Aviation on April 29 and signed by its acting Director General, Joyce Nkemakolam, the regulatory body refuted the submission of the Rivers state government. Said the NCAA “Caverton Helicopters was invited for a meeting today, the 29th of April, 2013 they denied having any dealings with this aircraft in question.” The NCAA said it might have to invite the security agencies for further investigation as indications showed that the documents used to operate the aircraft in Nigeria were fake.

The letter to the minister also revealed that after the Akure incident, NCAA was prompted to investigate the aircraft background and discovered that it had been operating into and out of Nigeria on ad hoc basis, which means that it never had proper documents for it to actually operate in the country. “After the media reports of what happened in Akure airport, we undertook a due diligence of the status of the aircraft and to our amazement found that the aircraft has been operating into and out of Nigeria on ad hoc since January 2013,” it added.

Meanwhile, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) says it amounted to ordinary rumour for some persons to hold the view that the Bombadier BD 700-1A11 (Global Express) belonging to the Rivers State Government was grounded at the Akure Airport on Friday, April, 26, 2013 evening for political reasons. The agency explained, “We maintain that the aircraft’s pilot erred by not filing mandatory documents, that is the manifest as and when due, at an airport that was not certified for night flight operations.

“Whenever an aircraft stays beyond 6.00pm, authorization must be gotten from the appropriate authorities before such aircraft is cleared for take-off, hence the slight delay in the departure of the aircraft.” FAAN said in a statement signed by the General Manager, Corporate Communications, Yakubu Dati that the aircraft in question belonged to and was registered in the name of Bank of Utah Trustees, Salt Lake City, USA, and only had permission to fly into Nigeria on March 27th, 2013 and depart on April, 2nd, 2013. “As at Friday, the parent company (BUT) had not regularized its status to continue to fly in the Nigerian airspace, neither has it been given a flight operation clearance certificate.

The aviation industry abides by strict regulations and does not waive such, no matter whose ox is gored. “We believe the entire scenario has been concocted to enmesh a safety and procedural issue into a political matter. It was unfortunate that three government agencies; FAAN, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) have been dragged into a politics of intrigue for doing their work properly.” Dati also said the aviation industry is internationally regulated, “so we believe that the appropriate authorities should be left to perform their duties as it ought to be done, in the overall nterest of safety and security.”

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/business/amaechi-lied-over-aircraft-maintenance-deal-ncaa/

CFCfan: I'm definitely not holding brief for the AD/ACN Lagos administrations of the past 14 years; but N400bn is a gargantuan sum of money which NO state govt in Nigeria can afford to splash on a single project. That amount is even bigger than d budgets of MOST states in Nigeria. Sometimes, it's necessary to solicit funds from the private sector to construct public infrastructure.
The proposed 4th mainland bridge (which will be 15 miles in length) will reportedly cost over $1bn, representing 25% of the state's annual budget. There is no way the LASG will commit such a huge sum of money to a single project too.

Nonetheless, I give the FG kudos for embarking on an aggressive railway modernization program, which I hope will be sustained and possibly improved upon by the introduction of either High-speed rail or 'Medium'-speed rail coaches. I'll suggest that the HSR should only be deployed in lucrative routes, such as Lagos-Onitsha, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Warri, Abuja, Kano etc.

thelastPope: How does that sattelite picture show 185 people dead and 2000 houses burnt? You mean somebody looked at those sattelite pictures and counted 185 dead people and 2000 burnt houses in a village?

You are an enemy of Nigeria. You and your gang are evil people trying to sabotage the system because of your selfish interest. You have failed, woefully!

Bomi: It is sad that we must read politics into everything, even when the Rep has not investigate the issues surround the grounding! even when they have over 'hype' over-sighting functions into NACA as an agency of government which they can call to order! Haba this is sad.
Nairalander should not join the craze going on body politics of Nigeria! Let this forum be of independent assessment of issues in politic of Nigeria.

ckkris: And you still assume to know what is on ground?

Alxmyr: You underrated the power of the presidency.
However, many are pointing accussing fingers at GEJ, the people that are on Amaechi's neck are:
Sir Peter Odili
Celestine Omehia
Abiye Sekibo
Nyesom Wike

The battle on ground is about who succeed Amaechi in 2015 more than what Amaechi become after 2015.
Beside I always laugh when people come up with Sule Lamido/ Rotimi Amaechi ticket.
The reasons are obvious.
1. In 2015, Presdient cannot come from North West and the Vice from South South under PDP. It will be highly impossible.
2. Sule Lamido is Obj's boy. Amaechi is anti-Obj.
3. The decision about who pick the Vice-President ticket in 2015 does not lie with some disgruntled disloyal PDP governor inside one office in Jigawa or Port Harcourt.

Lastly, Amaech and his cohort should answer why a state owned aircraft is registered in the name of an American private citizen in far away United States.

phreakabit: WOW! That's simply AMAZING! I am sure anyone that looks at all threads started by you (link below) will know why.
[url]https://www.nairaland.com/taharqa/topics [/url]


[size=18pt]SMH![/size]

Billyonaire: You are truly NOT a businessman and may be you have NOT made high networth international Purchase. I stated that I EXPECTED him to CHANGE the Title to PROPERTY OF RIVERS STATE GOVERNMENT from Bank of UTAH, which brokered the sale and purchase. Jesus, Omo-Tier1, Are you this timid ? Do not be offended, I just had to ask.

Dedetwo: My intellectual capacity shall not be graded by embarking on a foolish research into erroneous pronouncements made by local judges in Lagos State. The benefit of doubt to provide evidence on the said pronouncement is on you who seem to make political hay out of inconsequential pronouncement by local lawyer in Lagos.

taharqa: Who do you think wants to 'debate' a DUNCE? ABeg, go back to whatever 'analysis' you think you have been doing on pure politics; dont stray into matters that you know nothing about and in which you will be seriously BURNT. FACTS, that is.

Na just advice....

Billyonaire: May be you did NOT read me clearly, I wrote INTRA-PARTY issue and that is what it is. Please stay within the topical thread and NOT jump into other issues with INTENT of derailing this thread which you have lost totally in your arguments. Please! As for the Air Craft, it is registered to belong to 'BANK OF UTAH' -Trustee of Salt Lake City. Does that sound like 'Property of Rivers State Government' ? Cool down bro, I tracked that Airline myself when it was purchased and that was what I found, I thought he had changed it since to 'Rivers State Property'. What was his motive ?