In a shocking twist, Capt. Dapo Olumide, the acting Managing Director of Nigeria Air, says the airplane that flew in with the logo of the airline was chartered from the Ethiopian Airlines for the purpose of unveiling the logo.
Olumide said this on Tuesday in Abuja, when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Aviation.
He said that the airline had yet to secure an operating licence for full flight operations, saying that the processes were still at the early stages.
Olumide said that aircraft was used pending the completion of the processes required for the operation of the airline.
He said his mandate was to secure an air operating certificate for the airline not necessarily to operate the airline but to secure a licence to fly.
“The aircraft that came in and left was a legitimate charter flight.
“Anyone of us here if we have a destination wedding in Senegal, we can charter an aircraft.
“You don’t need to have a licence to do that, you just charter an aircraft, an aircraft you paid for it, it will be brought here, take your passengers and off you go.
“And that is what we did. but in this case, it was to unveil the Logo of Nigeria Air.
“Ever since 2018, all you have ever seen about Nigeria Air were pictures, drawings not the real aircraft, and we thought it was time to show what the real aircraft will look like also to let shareholders see,” Olumide said.
He added:“We have institutional investors, they are not in aviation but they are putting their money for 10 to 15 years, so they need to see what the actual aircraft will look like.
“So we brought it in here to show them what the aircraft will look like, then the social media dimension came into it.
“For us to get that licence which is my mandate, we must among other things have three aircraft before the NCAA will give us a licence and those three aircraft must be Nigerian registered aircraft.
“So when this aircraft came on a chartered flight, everybody said we have launched Nigeria Air, there are learned people in the aviation industry who could have countered that when social media came out, but they chose not to.”
Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Sen.Biodun Olujimi said it was unfortunate that the former Minister of Aviation failed to involve the committee and other stakeholders in the Air Nigeria project.
“To state the obvious, he failed to carry members of the Committee along in virtually all ramifications despite the degree of respect members accorded him any time he was invited for meetings.”
House Calls for Prosecution of those involved in the fraudulent launch of Nigeria Air
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has called for the suspension of the establishment of Nigeria Air.
The House also called for prosecuting those involved in the unveiling of the national carrier by the previous administration, describing the exercise as a fraud.
The resolutions were reached on Tuesday during the committee’s interactive session with some government officials and other relevant bodies in the sector at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja.
The Chairman of the Committee, Nnolim Nnaji (PDP, Enugu), read the resolutions of the Committee at the end of the interaction.
BRANDPOWER reports that an aircraft purportedly belonging to the national carrier was unveiled by the immediate past Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika who had famously boasted that Nigeria Air would be launched before May 29, 2023, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport premises in Abuja on 26 May.
