Airline operators laud court ruling on Nigeria Air project

Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has described the bidding approval and unveiling processes of the botched Nigeria Air as a fraud. AON also alleged that the failed project was set up to hoodwink Nigerians and kill the country’s indigenous airlines.

The group’s President, Abdulmunaf Yunusa, in a statement, lauded Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, for suspending the project.
He also commended the ruling of Lagos High Court, saying: “The bold and patriotic declarations and orders made by the court leaves no one in doubt that the entire bidding approval and so-called unveiling processes of the purported national carrier was nothing other than a sham to hoodwink Nigerians.

“It was also a surreptitious plan to kill Nigerian indigenous airlines and handover the commonwealth of Nigeria’s huge aviation market with over 85 Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASA) around the world to Ethiopian Airlines through the back door without investing a penny into the Nigerian economy, and in an attempt to satisfy the whims and caprices of some selfish and unpatriotic individuals.
 
“We, therefore, thank the court for standing tall in the face of untold pressure from very high quarters and for exonerating ADN and other well-meaning Nigerian indigenous airlines for going to court to protect the interest of Nigeria as well as proving truly to be the only hope of the common man.”

Justice A. Alagoa of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos had, on Monday, declared in a judgment that the action, conduct and or decisions in the sale of the shares and operations of the so-called Nigeria Air were in violation of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, SEC Nigeria Consolidated Rules & Regulations 2013 (as amended in 2022).

It also ruled that it violated  Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) Act, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Convention, Civil Aviation Act, Public Procurement Act, Concession Regulatory Commission (Est.) Act, 2005, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, Procurement Processes for Public Private Partnership in the Federal Government under the National Policy on Public Private Partnership (N4P) and Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations, 2015 and other regulatory statutes on aviation, companies and investment laws in Nigeria.