The minister of aviation, Mr. Hadi Sirika, has denied knowledge of any law suit instituted to stop the Nigeria.
Sirika made the denial at an event tagged ‘Appreciation ceremony for stakeholders by FAAN’ held in Lagos on Tuesday.
It was meant to appreciate stakeholders for the successful delivery of Runway 18L/36R at the domestic wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport for 24-hour operation.
Recall that some domestic carriers had last Friday, November 12 charged the federal government to court praying it to stop the national carrier deal and withdraw the Air Transport Licence already issued to the airline by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
They claimed that the firm which served as transaction adviser for the transaction was incorporated in March last year and alleged that the company was linked to the aviation minister.
The carrier further alleged that ATL issued to Nigerian Air did not pass through the normal security clearance.
Besides, the airlines said the federal government’s partnership with Ethiopian Airlines on the project will send the domestic airlines out of business by opening up the domestic air travel market to Ethiopian Airlines.
Nigeria Air, Ethiopian Airlines, Sirika, and attorney general of the federation and minister of justice Mr. Abubakar Malami are the defendants in the suit.
Reacting to the development, Sirika said there is no court in Nigeria that can stop the airline from operating.
He said even the complainants were invited to be part owners in the airline but they neither accepted nor declined the offer.
“I am not aware that anyone is in court. I don’t have any court papers; otherwise, I am not interested. I cannot see any court or any rational court that will say that I am stopping somebody from establishing a company because Nigeria Air is a limited liability company known to the Nigerian laws in the corporate affairs commission.
“If anybody wants to come and invest in that company, there is no law in Nigeria that stops him from doing so. If there are foreigners coming to invest, nobody stops them from investing. You can own a company 100 percent. What would you say to Shell, Unilever, May and Baker, PWD and Julius Berger? There are companies in Nigeria registered by Nigerian law and people are coming to invest. This is what we want. We want foreign direct investment (FDI). If people or Nigerians are investing in the airline with over $200 million in Nigeria, so what? We want more of them,” he said.
The minister said he had been fair to all the stakeholders in the aviation sector stressing that there was neither a policy nor project he initiated and implemented without carrying everyone along.
Particularly on the national air, the minister said it would be unfair for the stakeholders, including the airlines to claim that they were never part of the project from inception to actualisation.
“Every information or documents pertaining to the project is domiciled at the ministry of aviation and Infrastructure Construction Regulatory Commission which are driving processes leading to the national carrier.
“I heard that the airline owners said that they were not carried along. If you were there at the National Assembly, I told them where I met them like the Max Air, Azman, Air Peace, Ibom, everybody where I met them and told them to please come and partner in this airline and own it, telling them that it is meant for the private sector. I told Air Peace to come and invest in this one and one of them said to me that I should make it formal.
“I said to him that I met you in your own place, met with you and invited you and told him that I have put it in all places as adverts. I also put it in the Economist, on television and also put it on the website. How formal can that be? I always beg them to say all you stakeholders are invited to be owners of the airline as private sector people. Nobody will say he was not invited,” he said.
