Lawamaker, Nnolim, denies demanding 5% Nigeria Air stake from Sirika

Former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Nnaji Nnolim, has denied demanding five per cent equity of Nigeria Air from ex-Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika.

Sirika, while speaking on Arise TV on Sunday, had accused Nnolim of demanding five per cent from him for himself and “his people”.

“He (Nnaji) asked to give him five percent of Nigeria Air to carry him along with his people, and I said to him at that time that honourable, this is a bidding process that has taken place, and some people won,” Sirika had said. 

Reacting via a statement, Nnolim denied such claims. He asked the former aviation minister to come clean to Nigerians about the Nigeria Air deal.

“Ordinarily, l would not have bothered to reply to his allegations of my demand for five percent equity in Nigeria Air as he claimed during his interview on Arise Television but l believe l owe my constituents and indeed Nigerians, a duty to put the records straight,” he said. 

“It is on record that last year when the minister announced Ethiopian Airlines as the core investor in Nigeria Air, my committee which was also inundated with petitions from various stakeholders regarding that announcement invited the minister and his team to furnish the committee with the details of the project.

“The committee requested the evidence of the bid process that gave Ethiopian Airlines the award and the full business case as prepared by the Nigerian Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) which was supposed to spell out the details of all the investors and their equity contributions.

“Sirika at that meeting said the full business case was still being worked out by the ICRC and promised to make it available to the committee as soon it was ready which he failed to do before Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) took the ministry to court and got injunction restraining it from going ahead with the project,” he said.

He added that the ploy was for the national carrier to “take off before the exit of the last administration of President Muhammadu Buhari”. 

“I quickly issued a statement warning the former minister against subverting the authority of NCAA because of its severe consequences on Nigeria’s air transport sector.

“It is also common knowledge that the Nigerian institutional investors he mentioned as participants have all denied him.

“It is not strange that Sirika came up with this spurious allegation against my person because l remained consistent in demanding that he followed due process. He should not deviate from the subject matter. Let him tell Nigerians the truth about the contraption he sold to us as Nigeria Air,” he added.