Ime Akpan
The chief executive officer of West Link Airlines, Capt. Ibrahim Mshelia, has faulted the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on a 60-day suspension of a private jet owner who commercialised his aircraft saying such punishment is too lenient.
Recall that the director general of the NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu had recently said at a virtual meeting that the agency had apprehended a private jet operator who used its equipment for charter services.
Nuhu who kept the identity of the offender under wraps said the operator would be suspended for about 60 days with additional sanction if found guilty.
He also stated that the agency had put some checks in place to identify illegal operators who convert their private jets into hire and reward thereby denying the federal government the requisite revenues while the registered charter operators also lose clients and revenues.
“These private operators are required to file monthly reports on the number of flights conducted and with passenger manifest for us to look and determine that possibly these are legal charter operations.
“We are dealing with actually one of the Permit for Non- Commercial Flight (PNCF); the enforcement team has recommended 60 days suspension of its certificate in addition to fine. So, they have a period of 30 days for which to get back to us or protest or bring evidence that we ask them,” he said.
Commenting on the matter, Mshelia said the 60-day suspension as well as planned seizure of the offender’s Permit for Non- Commercial Flight (PNCF) was too mild to serve as a deterrent against illegal conversion of private aircraft for commercial purpose.
Instead, he said the private jet owner should be handed over to security agencies for proper prosecution.
Mshelia insisted that the offence constitutes economic crime.
“I disagree with the director general on the 60–day suspension of license. That is a crime against the economy of the country. That is a crime against all we stand for. Why will NCAA just give such a little punishment? The punishment should be more serious.
“I want to call your attention to something. NCAA is not a law court; it has its limitations legislatively on how it can punish citizens legislatively.
“I want to advise that the NCAA should go further by handing over the culprit for prosecution in the law court. In that case, it will be in order. To me, the 60 days is too little,” Mshelia said in an interview.
Mshelia said illegal conversion of private jets to commercial use had been going on undetected for a long time adding that the perpetrators of the act are highly connected.
“The real truth is that there are powerful people behind all these illegal actions. If they are not, it would have been easy to flush them out. They want to live big. Some of these people are in a position to stop this in a minute, but they are involved in it. If we dig deeper, we will find them out,” he added.
Nevertheless he commended agency for plucking up courage to apprehend the unnamed operator and called for concerted effort to effectively sanitise the aviation industry.
The West Link CEO said full autonomy of the NCAA would further empower and embolden it to carry out some reform processes in the sector adding that Nuhu, with his international experience and exposure, was ready and willing to carry out the needed repositioning of the sector.
However, he observed that NCAA’s action may be limited because of the civil aviation regulations, but maintained that for proper cleansing of the sub-sector, the Department of State Services (DSS) and other security agencies should be invited.
“NCAA…needs our help. So many of us know the truth and we can help NCAA to act. We have a system that is hopeless, but you cannot say the truth in public otherwise you are called the radical. It shows us that the current NCAA helmsman is determined to exhibit what he has learnt from outside. The man was in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). He knows what is happening in other countries; he has seen it and he has come to say NO,” he added.
Mshelia advised private jet owners to change their licences to commercial, airlift clients legally, create more jobs for teeming professionals and pay the appropriate levies and taxes to the government instead of engaging in illegal charter operations.
