The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has described as “fictitious and misleading”, a statement credited to the spokesperson of the Airlines Operators of Nigeria (AON) that its members would stop payment of charges from November 1, 2013 pending the review of such charges.
According to a statement by Yakubu Dati, the Coordinating Spokesman of all Aviation Parastatals, the said release remained a figment of the imagination of Mr. Tukur, whom he said does not work for any of the airlines and technically not competent to speak for them.
Mr. Dati, said FAAN has very cordial business relationship with all the airlines, insisting that they have been paying their charges regularly.
“Our attention has been drawn to a fictitious and misleading news release, authored by Mr. Mohammed Tukur, the supposed spokesperson of the Airlines Operators of Nigeria (AON), alleging that airlines under the aegis of the association would stop paying their charges to all aviation agencies, with effect from November 1, 2013 pending the review of such charges.
“According to Tukur, airline operators would stop remitting such charges to the affected agencies, as a result of obsolete infrastructure at Nigerian airports, epileptic navigation aids, lack of accountability in the utilisation of aviation taxes among other clearly malicious, ill-motivated and unfounded allegations.
“To show that the said release was only a figment of the imagination of Mr. Tukur, who currently does not work for any airline and therefore cannot rightly speak for Nigerian airlines, all the airlines in the country have continued to remit their charges accurately to the various aviation agencies, to date.
“To the best of our knowledge, all operational airlines in the country continue to maintain a cordial business relationship with all the aviation agencies providing them service because they know that the present administration has shown undeniable commitment to the development of the country’s aviation industry.
“We therefore wish to urge all well meaning aviation stakeholders and the general public to see the said release by Mr. Tukur as a hatchet job, designed to put a spanner in the works of Government’s transformation agenda in the aviation industry. It was an ill-motivated and false report, full of fury but signifying nothing,” The FAAN General Manager, Communications stated.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mohammed Tukur has reacted to FAAN’s position, describing Yakubu Dati’s statement as “malicious, false and misguided”, adding that it was an attempt to discredit the Airlines Operators of Nigeria (AON).
He insisted that airlines have stopped payment of all charges effective from November 1, 2013, adding that they would not pay until when President Goodluck Jonathan steps in to sanitise the aviation sector.
Mr. Tukur’s statement reads in part, “My attention has been drawn to a libelous, malicious, false and misguided press release issued by the spokesperson of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr. Yakubu Dati, trying unsuccessfully to discredit a statement that I issued on 3 November 2013, on behalf of the Airlines Operators of Nigeria, AON.
“AON’s statement called on the Federal Government to sanitise the aviation sector in the country; rid it of corruption and corrupt people, and resolve the pressing issue of multiple charges and taxation currently killing airlines in the country.
“The statement also informed the public that airlines in the country have stopped paying monthly charges effective from November 1, 2013.
“These charges include navigation, landing and parking charges as well as 5 percent ticket sales, electrical bills and rent among other charges.
“Nothing, to the best of our knowledge, has changed since we issued that statement. Airlines are no more paying and would not pay until President Goodluck Jonathan sanitized the sector.
“I would like to state unequivocally that the statement that I made did not emanate from Mohammed Tukur as being claimed by Dati, rather it came from the Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON. It was made with the consent and the mandate of the Airlines Operators of Nigeria, AON”.
