THE vice-president of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) and the chairman of Air Peace Airline, Mr Allen Onyema, has responded to the recent indictment of the domestic carriers by the immediate past minister of aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika.
The former minister while responding to some allegations against him over the controversial Nigeria Air on Arise Television had accused the domestic airlines, particularly Air Peace, of not having the adequate capacity to operate.
Sirika who attributed the domestic airlines’ opposition towards the Nigeria Air project to their fear of competition, traced the failure of Air Peace to continue operations to the Dubai route to its lack of capacity.
In his reaction on the same Onyema Peace while accusing the former minister of distorting facts, declared him as an ethnic jingoist playing the ethnic card.
The Air Peace asked Nigerian to thank God for not allowing the national carrier project to sail through in view of the disadvantageous structure of the airline which he said concedes all the top management positions in the purported carrier to Ethiopians leaving Nigerians as second fiddle.
Onyema took a swipe at the former minister for singling out his airline and the other two, United Nigeria Airlines and Topbrass (coincidentally owned by southerners) while he mischievously left out the other airlines that joined in the suit against the purported Nigeria Air because they are owned by people from the minister’s region.
According to him, apart from Air Peace, other airlines that challenged the Nigeria Air project in court are: United Nigeria Air, Topbrass, Max Air and Azman.
“On Sunday when you asked the former minister question, why Air Peace, he mentioned Air Peace more than 15 times. We don’t know what Air Peace has done to him. He said it was not only Air Peace, and again United Nigeria Airline and he deliberately forgot to mention the other ones. Are we trying to play the ethnic card?
“Thank God the leadership of AON, Dr Abdulmanaf Yunusa Sarina, has given the AON the teeth to bite. That man is a nationalist. Dahiru Barau Mangal is from Katsina State; he owns Max Air Dr Abdulmunaf is from Kano State, he owns Azman.
“Both of them, Air Peace, United Nigeria, owned by Professor Obiora Okonkwo and Topbrass, owned by Mr Rowland Iyayi went to court and we are still in court, so it’s not an ethnic things, it’s a Nigerian thing.
“I want to congratulate Alhaji Dahiru Mangal. Today he is launching his first Boeing 777 aircraft and yet we don’t have the capacity.”
He declared: “All those falsehoods were meant to demean the Nigerian airlines in favour of this charade he put up with Ethiopia. Even the former President Muhammadu Buhari at a Federal Executive Council meeting had shut down this national air project at a time and one man is working in this country that it is needed.”
“He told the world on a television that we are low in capacity, that Air Peace was given the Dubai route to fly and said Air Peace is no longer flying now because they are low in capacity. Whoever advised Senator Hadi Sirika to come on television to defend the indefensible has not done him any good.”
According to Onyema, Air Peace airline stopped going to Dubai because of the outbreak of the pandemic and when Covid stopped we resumed. UAE decided to completely ban the issuance of visas to Nigerians, Air Peace had to stop operating to Dubai, Emirates stopped coming to Nigeria, neither Air Peace or Emirates is plying this route now. So why should the minister of government mischievously come on the television to spread falsehoods because he wants to paint the indigenous carriers black.
“The same Air Peace when the whole world shut down during the lockdown in 2020 because of the Covid, Air Peace went to China on three occasions bringing back Nigerians, went to India twelve times to bring back stranded Nigerians. We went to Thailand to bring Nigerians back to their country, went to Lalaysia to bring Nigerians back home, went to Indonesia, brought Nigerians back, yet we don’t have the capacity even South Africa and U.K. All I get from government officials is fight from every angles. We are not afraid of completion.
“The court order have not being vacated what they did on May 29 was contemptuous. Inviting a foreign airline to disrespect our judiciary is very unbecoming of our government officials. The case has not been vacated, it’s still subsisting, you don’t vacate by the words of the mouth. Application to vacate does not mean vacation, it could go either way.”
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