surrounding the grounding of a Bombardier jet belonging to the Rivers State
government have taken a fresh turn, as sources within the National Airspace
Management Agency (NAMA) revealed that the embattled governor of the state,
Rotimi Amaechi, would have to pay a total sum of $320,000, about N51.2 million,
to the agency for the 16 days its pilot contravened the aviation laws.
According to findings by Sunday Tribune, for
violating the airspace regulation for 16 days, the Rivers State government
would part with a $20,000 per day fine.
But a source within the state government disclosed
that NAMA’s position about payment of fine was entirely new to the government,
saying: “We are not aware of any fine, neither has the state government been
officially briefed. Whenever NAMA briefs us officially on the issue, we will
know what to do.”
According to the sources, NAMA would not have
grounded the plane if the pilot had signed the passenger manifest, stating that
it was after the grounding of the plane by NAMA that the Nigerian Civil
Aviation Authorities (NCAA) noticed that the plane had registration issues,
even as they noted that the grounded plane would be released by the agency as
soon as the owner paid the fine.
However, the sources revealed that NAMA was only
concerned with the violation of the airspace regulation, saying the payment of
the fine would not stop the NCAA from carrying out its duties as regarding the
grounded plane.
It will be recalled that accusations have flown
back and forth over the grounding of the plane, with Rivers State government
alleging that politics was behind the action by NAMA in Akure, Ondo State, when
the state governor went for the burial programme of the late deputy governor of
Ekiti State, Mrs Funmi Olayinka, penultimate Friday, while NAMA denied the
allegation, saying the pilot violated aviation regulations.
