Fresh trouble awaits AMCON: Ex-Nigeria Airways workers demand entitlements

Fresh trouble may be brewing for the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) following its takeover of Arik Air over huge debts and sundry issues.

According to the latest information gathered, the over 4,000 former workers of the defunct national carrier, the Nigeria Airways, are gearing up to engage AMCON following its announcement that it needed N10 billion to put the troubled airline back on track.

Many of the former national carriers have frowned at the sudden interest of government in a private carrier when it worked against the defunct national carrier.

The latest development may not be unconnected with the seeming sympathy of the Federal Government through AMCON to help revive Arik Air, a private airline which benefitted from the ruins of the former national carrier.

Many of the aggrieved workers are preparing for a showdown with government should it go ahead through AMCON to inject funds to the private carrier.

The decision to create crisis out of the development according to many of the former national carrier’s workers who spoke to the Tribune Aviation may not be unconnected with the unpatriotic roles they claimed government played in the unwise liquidation of the then national carrier.

The workers, though agreed that it was a different government that sabotaged the continuos existence of Nigeria Airways, but added that since government was a continuous process that the present government cannot justify why it should inject over N10 billion into a private airline while it deliberately refused to help the former national carrier sustain its existence with less than N1 billion.