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By Chinelo Obogo
Azman Air has issued an apology to the Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu, over a statement which emanated from a staff of the airline accusing him of wrongdoing.
The Accountable Manager of the airline, Muhammad Abdulmunaf, said in a statement that after carrying out an in-house investigation over the origin of the defamatory letter, the management discovered that one of its staff was responsible.
Abdulmunaf said contrary to the allegations contained in the letter accusing Nuhu of victimising the airline for failing to advertise in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) magazine, Azman’s accountable manager said while it is true that the airline was contacted to advertise, they
failed to make the payment which had nothing to do with the personal accounts of the DG but the publishers of the magazine.
“On March 21, 2021, we issued a press statement expressing our surprise at a publication credited to us in which the integrity and reputation of the Director General of
the NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, came under attack as a result of the decision taken by the
regulator to suspend our operations based on safety considerations.
“In the said press release, we denied management’s knowledge and approval for such
careless and unfortunate allegations made against the person of the DG but promised to
conduct internal investigations as to the source/s of the allegations.
“We have now conducted such in-house investigations which led to accusations and counter accusations amongst our staff as to who did it. We have established that, at least, it came from one
of them hence our disappointment with ourselves.
It is true that we were contacted, just as other airlines in the country, to advertise our services in the ICAO magazine for which payment was to be made. We inadvertently
failed to make this payment which however had nothing to do with the personal accounts
of the DG but the publishers of the magazine.
“At the suspension of our services by the NCAA, an overzealous staff, who erroneously thought that the suspension was dictated by our failure to pay for the advert, without
the knowledge and consent of management of Azman, authored the unfortunate
allegations against the DG.
“We wish to unreservedly tender our apologies to both the person of Capt. Musa Nuhu
and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority. We state categorically that there wasn’t and there is still no iota of truth in the allegations which are capable of damaging the
reputations of the DG and the NCAA.
“We equally extend our apologies to the
Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, for any embarrassment our actions may have
caused him and the government.
We regret every inconvenience caused the DG, NCAA, the Minister of Aviation and the aviation industry in Nigeria as a result of our publication of that falsehood. While we seek forgiveness for our actions, we promise to tighten our communication
controls to avoid future embarrassing situations as this one caused by us,”Abdulmunaf said.
