The crisis buffeting Nigeria’s troubled aviation industry escalated
on Sunday with Nigerian airlines announcing that they will no longer pay
any money to aviation agencies until the sector is rid of corruption
and corrupt people.Stella Oduah, Nigeria’s embattled aviation
minister, testified before the House of Representatives Committee on
Aviation on 31 October following revelations that the Nigerian Civil
Aviation Authority, NCAA, bought two BMW bullet-proof cars for her at
the hefty sum of N255 million.Oduah denied allegations against
her and put all blame on others, but documents show she approved the
purchase of the expensive cars that were not budgeted for and that were
beyond her approval limit of N100 million.The Airline Operators
of Nigeria, AON, announced on Sunday that Nigerian carriers have stopped
remitting all fees to aviation agencies because of the gargantuan
corruption rocking the sector.The remittances of aviation charges stopped on 1 November, said Mohammed Tukur, who spoke on behalf of the airlines.Tukur
said the airlines stopped remitting any money to the NCAA, the Nigerian
Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, the Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria, FAAN, and other relevant aviation bodies to protest against the
rot in the sector.He warned that Nigerian airlines may also ground their operations if nothing is done to ‘clean up’ the sector.
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