Sen. Ibn Na’Allah, a member of the Senate Committee on Aviation has apologized over its directive to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to suspend the issuance of Air Operators’ Certificate (AOC) to NG Eagle Airlines.
He stated this in Abuja during the 50th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Nigerian Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA).
It would be recalled that the Senate Committee in a letter dated Oct. 11 signed by its Chairman, Sen. Smart Adeyemi had last week, directed NCAA to suspend the issuance of AOC to NG Eagle Airline.
Adeyemi said the directive was necessary following the huge debts of Arik Air to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and other government agencies in the sector.
However, the directive was condemned by stakeholders and associations in the sector who insisted that it was tantamount to political interference on the statutory functions of NCAA by the Senate.
Na’Allah specifically said that the committee was misled on the controversial issue of NG Eagle AOC and apologised to Nigerians.
He, therefore warned against political interference on the autonomy NCAA in carrying out its duties.
The senator urged NCAA to go ahead with its duties and perform its statutory functions of the industry as the regulators without interference.
He said: “The senate does not wish to interfere in the statutory functions of NCAA as NG Eagle’s right will be breached unfairly if its AOC is not released after the company has complied with all mandatory tasks successfully.”
