«««Toothless Senators Na Your Share You Want Collect»»» #Senate To Resume Probing of Aviation Crisis Tomorrow# The Senate will on Tuesday resume to consider various contending national issues, including the current crisis rocking the aviation industry. The Senate had summoned the Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah, and heads of agencies under the ministry to appear before it in order to explain the real state of the aviation industry. The decision was taken after the Senators exhaustively discussed a motion moved by senator Hope Uzodima from Imo West Senatorial District, who drew the attention of his colleagues to the air crash involving a 23 year-old Propeller aeroplane on the fleet of the Associated Airlines three weeks ago. Uzodima had expressed concern that the incident which had left families of the victims in agonies and pains, had underscored the need for the country to re- examine its aviation sector to ascertain the real causes of frequent crashes. He also observed with regret that the propeller airplane bearing the remains of a former governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, from Lagos to Akure, crashed barely one minute after it took off from the domestic wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Ikeja. The lawmaker also noted that the incident which was the seventh in the series of fatal crashes that had claimed the lives of notable Nigerians between June 2, 2012 and October 3, 2013, was suggestive of a deep seated systemic problem that must be resolved to avert further occurrence. The session, presided over by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, therefore unanimously agreed to summon the aviation minister and the chief executive officers of all the agencies under her supervision to explain the true state of the aviation sector. Ekweremadu, had while ruling on the submission of the senate, clarified that the invitation of Oduah and the heads of the aviation agencies was not an indictment of their competence. Rather, he said the occasion would afford the aviation chiefs, an opportunity to state their efforts at implementing past reports and recommendations of the Senate aimed at ensuring safety and sanity in the aviation industry. He had said, The observation of lapses in the aviation industry expressed by the senators is not also an indictment of the senate committee on aviation. The Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, while briefing journalists after the plenary said the invitation of the minister was pursuant to section 67 (2) of the 1999 Constitution. Abaribe added that since the invitation extended to the aviation chiefs was for them to appear before the plenary, the minister and her top officers would appear before the Senate after its resumption on October 22. Also, Abaribe had said that there was no formal allegation against Oduah, over the N255m bulletproof car scandal before the Senate. Meanwhile, a civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to order the sale of the two armored BMW cars bought with funds from the Aviation Ministry for Oduah. The group demanded that Jonathan should use the proceed to provide compensation for families of victims of recent air accidents and also commit part of the funds to set up a Trust Fund to jump-start genuine reform of the aviation industry. In a statement on Sunday by its Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, SERAP said,Selling the cars as proceeds of corruption and using the funds to pay compensation to families of victims of air accidents would also have the great additional benefit of reining in endemic corruption in the sector as perpetrators would know that they would not be allowed to profit from their crime.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 10:29:11 +0000
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