Nigeria Air is a fraud, Ethiopian Airline painted as Nigeria Air – Keyamo
Omeiza Bilal
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has described the controversial Nigeria Air unveiled by the Buhari-led administration as a fraud, stating that it remains suspended.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had recently arraigned a former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, in connection with the botched Nigeria Air project.
Keyamo while briefing newsmen in Abuja on Monday at the Ministerial Sectorial update to mark President Tinubu’s one year in office said the airline was never a Nigerian airline but instead, an attempt to impersonate a foreign airline operating in Nigeria.
He said, “It was Ethiopia airline but painted as Nigeria Air. It is not air Nigeria. If it is so, why not allow our local people to fly our flag. Why bring a foreigner to fly our flag?”.
“So, nobody should deceive you that is not Nigeria Air,” he said.
Keyamo while highlighting other giant strides under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration said they have started the commencement of cargo flights, noting that it will enable Nigeria to tap into the $6 trillion global cargo market.
He said they are going to resume cargo flights between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia adding that the Air cargo trade accounts for 35 per cent of the world trade deficit and air cargo trade according to the International Air Transport Association, IATA attracts about $6 trillion annually and we’re missing you know, within that sector we were missing in many routes around the world and we have achieved that”, he said.
On the issue of all trapped funds of foreign airlines, he said it have been cleared.
“We all know this issue was the issue of trapped funds of the international airlines. Their finds were trapped here because of lack of liquidity on the part of Nigeria because of so many subsidies we pay with our foreign earnings.
“Also, foreign airlines were threatening to stop operating in Nigeria. Now, I must give credit to all those in the financial sector for this. We had to work closely with the CBN we have to work closely with the Minister of Finance,
“We had to work closely with all of the ministers in the financial sector and by our persistence we are happy to announce that we have cleared all the trapped funds.
He further explained that the move was to help the country take full advantage of its reciprocal right under the BASA agreement with various countries.
