Fakoyejo OlalekanThe Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) have denied claims that the umbrella body for local carriers defrauded Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and other Nigerian aviation agencies.
Reports had emerged on Wednesday that domestic airlines defrauded the Nigerian aviation agencies, including Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) of over N19 billion rising from ticket sales.
The comment was attributed to the Director-General of the NCAA, Musa Nuhu. Domestic airlines were threatened with sanction if they fail to pay within a month.
However, the vice-president of Airline Operators of Nigeria, Allen Onyema, said the amount is a debt, and shouldn’t be mistaken as fraud. He explained that domestic airlines with bad debts have shutdown operation.
In a statement he signed on Wednesday, Onyema said, “Our attention has been drawn to news making the rounds that the director-general, NCAA, Musa Nuhu, ‘accused airlines of defrauding government aviation agencies like the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) of over N19 billion while converting same to ‘personal use.”
He further stated that, “The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) wishes to state its very strong reservations for such accusations and we deny very strongly that our members are defrauding or defrauding government agencies of the said amount or any amount for that matter.
“Airline operations, worldwide, are not a cash-and-carry business. Every airline in the world owes debts which are settled as their operations go on. Nigeria is not an exception.”
Onyema argued that owing debt doesn’t amount to fraud, hence, “We frown very strongly at the criminalisation of all Nigerian airlines as a result of the said debts.”
Although he stressed that at no point did he hear the NCAA DG use the word to describe the situation during a stakeholder meeting, with everyone agreeing to work together to address the debts.
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