Aviation graft: Stakeholders seek extension of probe to all parastatals

By Louis Iba

NIGERIA’S aviation sector stakeholders have called on the Federal Government to extend its ongoing probe to all aviation parastatals given recent revelations of high level graft at the Nigerian Air­space Management Agency (NAMA) by the Economic and Financial Crimes Com­mission (EFCC).

The anti-graft agency re­cently docked former Man­aging Director of NAMA, Mr. Ibrahim Abdulsalami, alongside five other top man­agement staff at the Federal High Court in Lagos for al­leged acts of fraud estimated at over N6.9 billion.

But sources told Daily Sun that strike the arraignment of the NAMA top officials in the court, there has been a flurry of petitions to the EFCC by stakeholders including air­line operators, contractors, aggrieved staff and labour unions in the sector urging the anti-graft agency to probe the disbursement of funds for projects executed in the past few years by agencies like the Federal Airports Author­ity of Nigeria (FAAN), Nige­rian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigerian Meteo­rological Agency (NIMET), Accident Investigation and Bureau (AIB), and the Nige­rian College of Aviation Tech­nology (NCAT), Zaria.

Daily Sun learnt that in recent months, most of the aviation sector parastatals have been finding it hard to pay staff salaries with some staff alleging that at the root of the crisis was the mismanage­ment of funds earmarked for staff salaries.

It was learnt that some of the parastatals have been or­dered by the government to be self-sustaining by generat­ing their own funds from the services they provide to air­lines and other users indepen­dent of government funding on items like staff salaries.

“There have been calls, petitions, and agitations for the EFCC to probe other aviation sector agencies espe­cially with the revelations of the amount of money said to have been stolen at NAMA,” a senior official of one of the aviation parastatals told Daily Sun.

“There is also apprehen­sion by workers of the other agencies on whether such a probe would ever be insti­tuted and what will be the consequences on the industry. Workers are treading with caution and even fear these days and it is not a very good working atmosphere,” added the official.

Secretary General of the National Union of Air Trans­port Employees (NUATE), Mr. Olayinka Abioye, who volunteered to talk to Daily Sun on the subject said even the union had had cause to also send in petitions border­ing on allegations of graft in the aviation sector parastatals.