…Ask Adoke to prosecute Caverton
House of Representatives yesterday asked the Attorney General and Minister of Justice , Mohammed Adoke to prosecute Caverton Helicopters for allegedly providing false information that led to the grounding of Bombarder B700 Global Express belonging to the Rivers State Government by the Federal Government.
The chamber in the report of its joint committee on Justice and Aviation that probed the grounding of the aircraft in April by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority also accused the latter of displaying gross ineptitude in the handling of issues that led to the grounding of the aircraft.
It said, “the level of ineptitude of NCAA is glaring in many respects: failure to appreciate from a trust agreement that an aircraft belongs to a trustor-beneficiary even after their attention is drawn to it and even as other aircraft are registered in the name of the same trustee; non-detection of an expired flight clearance 24 days after the fact and the detection was triggered by an incident rather than as a matter of course; even if the fact of falsification of documents were true.
“It was unacceptable that NCAA did not detect this fact for over six months; indeed NCAA boasted in a letter of April 29, 2013 that following the incident it undertook a “due diligence of the status of the aircraft,” but even then it failed to determine the issue of ownership and several others.
The joint committee is headed by Ali Ahmad, who chairs the Justice committee and Nkeriruka Onyejeocha, chairman of Aviation Committee. A public hearing on the grounding of the aircraft was held last week. The aircraft, which had the Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi on board was first delayed at Akure Airport on April 26 but later grounded by NCAA the next day.
We challenge Rivers State to show any mandate, any contract, any correspondence, any form of payment to us for providing the purported services to them in the last eight months as they claimed. It is inconceivable that, as a business, we will be providing the purported services to them for free and without any form of documentation.”
Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah said at the pubic hearing by the House that the aircraft was flying with forged documents. She hinted that her ministry might drag the Rivers State Government before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) for forgery .
The ministry exonerated NCAA and NAMA of blame in the grounding of the bombardier, saying the law should not be respecter of anybody.
But the report of the committee that investigated the grounding slammed NCAA and the agencies in the aviation ministry, accusing them of not diligently performing their duties. Although details of the report of the committee are yet to be made , the report recommended that the Attorney General should prosecute Caverton Helicopters for allegedly deceiving the Federal Government into grounding the aircraft The report recommended that “
Rivers State Government should be allowed to comply with the necessary conditions for granting of all required permits and licences of Rivers State Government-owned Bombardier B700 Global Express Registration Number N565Rs. “For providing information that led the authorities to wrongly believe that Rivers State Government falsified documents thereby leading to grounding of its aircraft, the Attorney-General is requested to consider prosecuting Caverton Helicopters under the provisions of S. 36(4) Civil Aviation Act, Cap. C13 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
It continued: “ Urge the Ministry of Aviation to desist from undue interference in the day-to-day operations of the aviation regulatory authorities as envisaged by the law, “ Urge the aviation regulatory authorities to operate professionally and ensure compliance with international best practices in the industry; “ That the House Committee on Aviation be mandated to scrutinise the reason for rampant foreign registration of aircraft by their owners and to further investigate all private-use aircraft operating in the country with a view to sanitising their operation and ensuring enforcement of the law in a society that is democratic.”
Giving details of its findings, the committee said in the report that “ aircraft Bombardier B700-1A11 Global Express with Registration Number N565RS is the property of Rivers State Government. “ Operational and other navigational charges were received by NAMA and FAAN and other agencies while operating the aircraft and receipts issued without raising alarm as to ownership of the aircraft by Rivers State Government.
“Perusal of the Trust Agreement between Rivers State Trustor and Bank of Utah Trustee would have shown this fact of ownership, it is distressing that NCAA and the ministry still failed or refuse to appreciate this simple fact; but since the authorities did not raise ownership issue with several other aircraft having the name of Bank of Utah Trustees, this allegation is in bad faith and grossly unprofessional. “
As the owner, Rivers State Government elected to register the aircraft in the U.S. to save money for the state and avoid unnecessary bureaucracy. “Rivers State Government, through Caverton, applied to the Minister of Aviation to import and operate the aircraft in Nigeria but the application was not consummated, and so it is being operated in Nigeria as a foreign aircraft for private use.
“As from 27 August, 2012 when it applied on behalf of Rivers State Government to import the aircraft, Caverton maintained agency relationship with the Government; although that relationship was abated shortly thereafter with regard to importation of the aircraft, other aspects of the agency relationship continued especially relating to applications for flight clearance; however, all relationships between the parties were brought to an end by Caverton’s letter of denunciation to NCAA dated April 26, 2013.
“ As owner and operator of the aircraft, neither Rivers State Government nor its officials forged or falsified any document toward securing flight clearances or any other licence “Should top management of Caverton denying transacting business with Rivers State Government despite its acquiescence of transactions between its member of staff and the government, then its behaviour smacks of administrative laxity or negligence; alternatively, its behavior lends credence to the assertion that it was pressured to deny the relationship.
“Caverton should be held accountable for providing information that led NCAA to ground the aircraft, contrary to provision of the law. “ Rivers State Government operated its aircraft with expired clearance between April 2 and 26, 2013; but several other aircrafts are suspected to be in similar situation, isolation of Rivers State Government for reprimand becomes difficult to deny.”
The report maintained “justifications for both the delayed start-up in Akure and the continued grounding of the aircraft in Port Harcourt amount to taking an action and later shopping for reasons: the faulty declaration of manifest and failure to file flight plan ceased to be a reason immediately the Director-General of NAMA waived the infringement and permitted the aircraft to depart Akure, otherwise continuous citing of manifest and flight plan violations as additional reason for grounding the aircraft has serious implication for the director-general; alleged fabrication of documents by Rivers State Government was unsubstantiated.
“ Having overlooked the Akure violation, the only justification known to law to warrant regulatory action against the aircraft is its operation with expired clearance between April 2 and 26, 2013.
However, NCAA botched the opportunity to legally impose the sanction as it failed to give a written notice to Rivers State Government as required by Section 35(5) Civil Aviation Act, Cap. C13 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004; “The handling by NAMA and NCAA of this violation and their response actions further confirms the previous findings of the Joint Senate and House Committee on Aviation on the Crash of Dana Aircraft that the Ministry of Aviation exerts undue interference on routine operations of these agencies.”
House of Representatives yesterday asked the Attorney General and Minister of Justice , Mohammed Adoke to prosecute Caverton Helicopters for allegedly providing false information that led to the grounding of Bombarder B700 Global Express belonging to the Rivers State Government by the Federal Government.
The chamber in the report of its joint committee on Justice and Aviation that probed the grounding of the aircraft in April by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority also accused the latter of displaying gross ineptitude in the handling of issues that led to the grounding of the aircraft.
It said, “the level of ineptitude of NCAA is glaring in many respects: failure to appreciate from a trust agreement that an aircraft belongs to a trustor-beneficiary even after their attention is drawn to it and even as other aircraft are registered in the name of the same trustee; non-detection of an expired flight clearance 24 days after the fact and the detection was triggered by an incident rather than as a matter of course; even if the fact of falsification of documents were true.
“It was unacceptable that NCAA did not detect this fact for over six months; indeed NCAA boasted in a letter of April 29, 2013 that following the incident it undertook a “due diligence of the status of the aircraft,” but even then it failed to determine the issue of ownership and several others.
The joint committee is headed by Ali Ahmad, who chairs the Justice committee and Nkeriruka Onyejeocha, chairman of Aviation Committee. A public hearing on the grounding of the aircraft was held last week. The aircraft, which had the Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi on board was first delayed at Akure Airport on April 26 but later grounded by NCAA the next day.
We challenge Rivers State to show any mandate, any contract, any correspondence, any form of payment to us for providing the purported services to them in the last eight months as they claimed. It is inconceivable that, as a business, we will be providing the purported services to them for free and without any form of documentation.”
Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah said at the pubic hearing by the House that the aircraft was flying with forged documents. She hinted that her ministry might drag the Rivers State Government before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) for forgery .
The ministry exonerated NCAA and NAMA of blame in the grounding of the bombardier, saying the law should not be respecter of anybody.
But the report of the committee that investigated the grounding slammed NCAA and the agencies in the aviation ministry, accusing them of not diligently performing their duties. Although details of the report of the committee are yet to be made , the report recommended that the Attorney General should prosecute Caverton Helicopters for allegedly deceiving the Federal Government into grounding the aircraft The report recommended that “
Rivers State Government should be allowed to comply with the necessary conditions for granting of all required permits and licences of Rivers State Government-owned Bombardier B700 Global Express Registration Number N565Rs. “For providing information that led the authorities to wrongly believe that Rivers State Government falsified documents thereby leading to grounding of its aircraft, the Attorney-General is requested to consider prosecuting Caverton Helicopters under the provisions of S. 36(4) Civil Aviation Act, Cap. C13 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
It continued: “ Urge the Ministry of Aviation to desist from undue interference in the day-to-day operations of the aviation regulatory authorities as envisaged by the law, “ Urge the aviation regulatory authorities to operate professionally and ensure compliance with international best practices in the industry; “ That the House Committee on Aviation be mandated to scrutinise the reason for rampant foreign registration of aircraft by their owners and to further investigate all private-use aircraft operating in the country with a view to sanitising their operation and ensuring enforcement of the law in a society that is democratic.”
Giving details of its findings, the committee said in the report that “ aircraft Bombardier B700-1A11 Global Express with Registration Number N565RS is the property of Rivers State Government. “ Operational and other navigational charges were received by NAMA and FAAN and other agencies while operating the aircraft and receipts issued without raising alarm as to ownership of the aircraft by Rivers State Government.
“Perusal of the Trust Agreement between Rivers State Trustor and Bank of Utah Trustee would have shown this fact of ownership, it is distressing that NCAA and the ministry still failed or refuse to appreciate this simple fact; but since the authorities did not raise ownership issue with several other aircraft having the name of Bank of Utah Trustees, this allegation is in bad faith and grossly unprofessional. “
As the owner, Rivers State Government elected to register the aircraft in the U.S. to save money for the state and avoid unnecessary bureaucracy. “Rivers State Government, through Caverton, applied to the Minister of Aviation to import and operate the aircraft in Nigeria but the application was not consummated, and so it is being operated in Nigeria as a foreign aircraft for private use.
“As from 27 August, 2012 when it applied on behalf of Rivers State Government to import the aircraft, Caverton maintained agency relationship with the Government; although that relationship was abated shortly thereafter with regard to importation of the aircraft, other aspects of the agency relationship continued especially relating to applications for flight clearance; however, all relationships between the parties were brought to an end by Caverton’s letter of denunciation to NCAA dated April 26, 2013.
“ As owner and operator of the aircraft, neither Rivers State Government nor its officials forged or falsified any document toward securing flight clearances or any other licence “Should top management of Caverton denying transacting business with Rivers State Government despite its acquiescence of transactions between its member of staff and the government, then its behaviour smacks of administrative laxity or negligence; alternatively, its behavior lends credence to the assertion that it was pressured to deny the relationship.
“Caverton should be held accountable for providing information that led NCAA to ground the aircraft, contrary to provision of the law. “ Rivers State Government operated its aircraft with expired clearance between April 2 and 26, 2013; but several other aircrafts are suspected to be in similar situation, isolation of Rivers State Government for reprimand becomes difficult to deny.”
The report maintained “justifications for both the delayed start-up in Akure and the continued grounding of the aircraft in Port Harcourt amount to taking an action and later shopping for reasons: the faulty declaration of manifest and failure to file flight plan ceased to be a reason immediately the Director-General of NAMA waived the infringement and permitted the aircraft to depart Akure, otherwise continuous citing of manifest and flight plan violations as additional reason for grounding the aircraft has serious implication for the director-general; alleged fabrication of documents by Rivers State Government was unsubstantiated.
“ Having overlooked the Akure violation, the only justification known to law to warrant regulatory action against the aircraft is its operation with expired clearance between April 2 and 26, 2013.
However, NCAA botched the opportunity to legally impose the sanction as it failed to give a written notice to Rivers State Government as required by Section 35(5) Civil Aviation Act, Cap. C13 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004; “The handling by NAMA and NCAA of this violation and their response actions further confirms the previous findings of the Joint Senate and House Committee on Aviation on the Crash of Dana Aircraft that the Ministry of Aviation exerts undue interference on routine operations of these agencies.”
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