NCAA catches illegal operator
| Eagle eye of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA) has caught up with a private operator who allegedly side track the normal procedures for operating charterl services in the country.If it had gone on undetected, the Regulatory Agency and the country would have lost humongous revenue and taxes. Chairman of West Link Airlines,Capt.Ibrahim Mshelia in interview with newsmen in Lagos over the weekend commended NCAA and call for the full support of every player in the aviation sector to bring orderliness to the industry. To further strengthen the Authority,Mshelia explained that” full autonomy of NCAA would further empower and embolden it to carry out some reform processes in the sector, lamenting that a few of the operators who carry out this act were “connected” in the country.” He opined that, the incumbent Director-General,Capt.Musa Nuhu, with all his wealth of international experience and exposure was determine to effect the needed reforms in the sector, but said” all hands must be on deck to achieve the desired objective.” He said he was not pleased with the 60 days suspension clamped on the culprit and planned seizure of its Permit for Non- Commercial Flight (PNCF). .According to Capt.Mshelia, the punishment was too mild to scare others from venturing into similar act. He expressed the view that the regulatory agency should hand over such offenders to the security agencies for prosecution.He insisted that such act was an ecomic crime against the country. The West Link Airline Chairman noted that NCAA’s action may be hampered as a result of the civil aviation regulations, but declared that for proper cleansing of the sub-sector,” it was proper for the Department of Security Services (DSS) and other security agencies to wade into the matter.” He is of the view that instead of engaging in illegal charter services, some of the private jet operators should change their license to commercial, airlift clients legally, create more jobs for teeming professionals and pay the appropriate levies and taxes to the government. “NCAA in what they are doing at the moment, they need our help. So many of us know the truth and we can help NCAA to act. We have a system that is hopeless, but you cannot say the truth in the public, otherwise you are called the radical. It shows us that the current NCAA helmsman is determined to exhibit what he has learnt from outside. The man was in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). He knows what is happening in other countries, he has seen it and he has come to say no.” “The real truth is that there are powerful people behind all these illegal actions. If they are not, it would have been easy to flush them out. They want to live big. Some of these people are in a position to stop this in a minute, but they are involved in it. If we dig deeper, we will find them out.” “I disagree with the DG on the 60 days suspension of license. That is a crime against the economy of the country. That is a crime against all we stand for. Why will NCAA just give such a little punishment? The punishment should be more serious.” “I want to call your attention to something, NCAA is not a law court; it has its limitation legislatively on how it can punish citizens legislatively. I want to advise that the NCAA should go further by handing over the culprit for prosecution in the law court. In that case, it will be in order. To me, the 60 days is too little.” At a virtual meeting last week the DG disclosed that the regulatory agency had apprehended a private jet operator who uses its equipment for charter operations. Capt. Nuh said, the regulatory agency had put in place mechanisms to identify illegal operators who convert their private jets into hire and reward, thereby denying the Federal Government the requisite revenues,, while the registered charter operators also lose clients and revenues. He warned that the agency would apply full weight of the law in this regards, stressing that it had also increased its ramp checks to reduce such dastardly act in the industry. “These private operators are required to file monthly reports on the number of flights conducted and with passenger manifest for us to look and determine that possibly these are legal charter operations.” “We are dealing with actually one of the Permit for Non- Commercial Flight (PNCF), the enforcement team has recommended 60 days suspension of its certificate in addition to fine. So, they have a period of 30 days for which to get back to us or protest or bring evidence that we ask them.” |
