Key players in the country’s aviation sector have warned the political class against politicising safety issues as electioneering campaigns continue.
The stakeholders’ warning was in reaction to an accusation levelled against the aviation authorities by the Labour Party campaign organisation that the aircraft chartered to fly the party’s presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi and his members from the Abuja Airport to Ibadan for a rally was grounded for political reasons.
According to the Labour Party, the aircraft that was meant to take them for a rally in Oyo state was grounded by the “powers that be”.
In a swift reaction, many of the stakeholders who spoke to Tribune Online cautioned the party and other political parties to desist from dragging the aviation sector into dirty politics.
According to the key players, rather than rush to blackmail the aviation authorities that their aircraft was actually grounded for political reasons, the campaign organisation should have found out from the owner of the plane why it was disallowed from flying.
Unknown to the Labour Party members, the key players said the aircraft in question could have been grounded for safety issues such as lack of insurance cover which may make the plane unfit to operate that flight in question.
Therefore, the players in the defence of the regulatory body argued that if the plane had met all safety requirements, the NCAA would not have grounded it.
They however advised the different political parties to conduct due diligence on any aircraft they intend to charter for use in the course of campaigns as any such plane that has safety concerns will always be grounded no matter the political party that is involved.
Speaking to Tribune Online, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Mr Sam Adurogboye, said contrary to the LP accusations, no aircraft was grounded.
While describing the Labour Party’s accusation as mere sensationalism, Adurogboye declared: “I understand NCAA didn’t ground any aircraft today. The aircraft said to be grounded is mere sensationalism. The reason was that the flight crew made an air return soon after take off as they had an issue they needed to come back and correct.
“This is what is termed a safety precautionary flight.
Let’s be careful not to drag NCAA into politics in its operations. Our mandate is to ensure the safety of all aircraft operating in Nigeria’s airspace regardless of whom they carried.”
In his own reaction, a union leader in the sector, Comrade Olayinka Abioye simply said: “Please don’t let’s dwell on this matter. It is more of a professional technical issue than political.”
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