The government of Rivers State has said that the two Caverton Helicopters pilots arraigned for contravening the executive order signed by the governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike to check the spread of coronavirus disease were held in a state government facility not in a correctional centre.
The attorney general of the state and commissioner for justice, Prof. Zacchaeus Adangor said in a statement that the pilots were moved to the facility after he obtained a variation order from the Magistrate’s Court to move them to Delta Hotels.
“Whilst the attorney general of Rivers State would ordinarily not want to discuss any matter pending before a court of competent jurisdiction, it has become necessary to correct the misinformation being circulated by some radio commentators that the two Caverton Helicopters Pilots are being remanded at the Port Harcourt Prisons.
“The truth of the matter is that the attorney general of Rivers State applied for and obtained a variation order from the Chief Magistrate Court, changing the place of remand from the Port Harcourt Prisons to any Rivers State Government-owned facility or building, including Delta Hotels, GRA Port Harcourt.
“Based on that order of variation of the remand order, the two pilots are being remanded at Delta Hotels, Port Harcourt and are attended to regularly by medical personnel attached to the Rivers State COVID-19 medical team,” said Adangor.
It would be recalled that the two pilots were arrested on Tuesday, April 7 after they flew a helicopter into Port Harcourt in the wake of the coronavirus disease lockdown.
They were subsequently arraigned before a magistrate’s court on a four-count charge of contravening the state government’s executive order on travel ban in the state and remanded until May 19.
In a state-wide broadcast the next day, Wike labeled the company an enemy of the state declared it a persona non grata.
“By its actions, Caverton Helicopters has clearly shown that Rivers lives do not matter to it. It is an enemy of Rivers people and is hereby declared persona non grata in Rivers State.
“With this declaration, Caverton Helicopters can only chose to operate in any part of Rivers State at its own risk as local government chairmen have been directed to close their offices and prevent their operations,” he said.
He said the airline’s insensitive and provocative actions took place amidst credible intelligence reports about plans by those he described as ‘the enemies of the state’ to traffic carriers of the dreaded coronavirus into the state.
“Their morbid intention is to create panic by pushing up the infection rate and rubbish the robust measures we have since put in place to cut off the spread of the virus and keep our state and our citizens safe and secured from the ravaging pandemic.
“As expected, and required by our laws, the crew and the passengers on board that ill-fated helicopter were promptly arrested by the law enforcement personnel and are being prosecuted before our courts in line with our COVID-19 Declarations and Containment Orders.
“Caverton Helicopters claimed to have gotten permits from some federal agencies to fly passengers into the state, which never bothered to take the state government into confidence in issuing such permits in violation of our laws and containment orders.
“While federal agencies reserve the right to issue flight permits to airline operators to fly into Rivers State, we insist that the state government must equally be informed and taken into confidence in the process.
“This is the only way to avoid suspicion, conflicts of interests and unnecessary bickering between the State and Federal Governments in our collective efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the country,” he added.
