The All Progressives Congress (APC) Vanguard for Good Governance, has faulted the comments attributed to the House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Aviation, Pharmacist Nnolim Nnaji, for describing the setting up of Nigeria Air as fraud.
In a statement made available to Journalists, on Wednesday by Usman Tanko, the National Leader of the socio-political group, Tosin Adeniyi said; “We strongly condemn the show of shame that occurred at the National Assembly on Wednesday, 6th June, 2023.
“In the name of conducting inquiry into the affairs of Nigeria Air, Hon. Nnolim Nnaji ended up showing his true hands and who his paymasters are. He de-marketed and bad mouthed Nigeria Air in order to please his Igbo brothers, Allen Onyema (owner of Airpeace airlines), and Obiora Okonkwo (owner of United Nigeria Airlines), who under the guise of being representatives of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), have only one motive, which is to continue to operate as monopolies while the Nigerian passengers continue to suffer from their high ticket prices and poor services”.
Continuing, Adeniyi said; “We have it on good authority that although Hon. Pharmacist Nnolim Nnaji was elected under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to represent the people of Nkanu East/West Federal Constituency, he has since turned himself into a Labour Party hatchet man in the hope that the election tribunal judgement would favour his closet Labour Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and he would be rewarded with the position of Aviation Minister or another post”.
“We are not fooled by the antics of Hon. Nnolim Nnaji and his co-travelers and alarmists. Their plans to destabilize the government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whose agenda is also to support the creation of a national carrier will fail.
“The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed should be wary of double agents like Hon. Nnolim Nnaji. If Nigeria Air does not commence flight operations as scheduled by Quarter 3, 2023, as detailed in a widely circulated document titled, ‘Nigeria Air, The Journey So Far’, Nigerians should hold Nnolim and his co-travelers responsible”.
“We are in support of the setting up of Nigeria Air. We have listened to several stakeholders on the benefits of having a national carrier. This was also detailed in the status update document released by Nigeria Air. The immediate past General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Olayinka Abioye,has also listed the gains as follows;
“Nigeria stands to gain in terms of cultural heritage, national pride, job opportunities, and foreign direct investments, among others,”.
“Hon. Nnolim Nnaji cannot match the character of the man he is trying so unsuccessfully to tarnish his image for selfish political gains, and parochialism. We challenge Hon. Nnolim Nnaji to a public debate to account to his people what he has achieved since he was elected a member of the House of Representatives”.
“The Acting Managing Director of Nigeria Air, Dapo Olumide, stated the facts during his appearance at the House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday, 6th June, 2023, although he was majorly misquoted, and mischievously too, by a section of the media.”
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