Connect with us

News

Angry Allen Onyema threatens to stop evacuation of Nigerians from troubled countries

Published

on

Allen Onyema, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Air Peace, one of Nigeria’s most influential airlines, has threatened to end his frequent evacuation of Nigerians from troubled countries across the world, if the ethnic colourations currently being attached to it does not stop, saying: “I don’t want a good gesture to be turned into an ethnic debacle.”

Onyema, a guest of The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on Arise Television, to speak on his latest intervention in moving Nigerian citizens out of Sudan, currently buried in a cataclysmic eruption of bloody conflict, said on Wednesday that his willingness to evacuate Nigerians stranded in the war-torn, was neither paid for nor a publicity stunt but born out of the love he has for Nigeria.

Explaining that service to Nigeria was a passion which started several years ago, he told his hosts: “I feel personally honoured to be allowed to do that. It’s not a publicity stunt, I’ve been doing it right from secondary school to the university to actively bring Nigeria together. I believe it’s something we should all be proud of.

“I don’t want a good gesture to be turned into an ethnic debacle. It makes me uncomfortable to the extent that I might not do this again, because I want to promote unity and not cause disunity. Nigeria is a country of 378 ethnic nationalities which is supposed to be our strength. The diversity we have today is an envy to all. It pains me that we have not been able to weave the country together in over  60 years of our independence.

Advertisement

“I do whatever I have to do to encourage people to come together to promote unity and encourage broad nationalism as against ethnic and religious nationalism which we have in this country. That is why I do it. I do it because I love this country and I believe we can be better. However, it pains me that my gesture has started causing some kind of problems on social media, people are trying to bring ethnic angle into it.

“Those who are supporting me, the Igbo who are rooting for me that an Igbo man is going to do this and do that, please stop. Even for other people from other tribes other than Igbo who have one or two things to say, please stop. It is a Nigerian thing, not Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba. I don’t want a good gesture to be turned into an ethnic debacle. It pains me to the extent that I might not do this again.” he said.

Meanwhile, Onyema also announced that planes will be deployed to Sudan on Friday, as it would take the evacuees who are now on their way to Cairo, two days to get to Cairo from Sudan by road.

“We are planning to deploy on Friday. I wanted to do it today, if possible but I was told it will take two days to get to Egypt from Sudan by road and last night they told me the buses had left. I wanted to deploy this night.

“On Thursday night, I might send out three jets to Egypt. I just pray no country will delay us over flight permit issues, so that we can get there on time and start moving people out immediately. I may send in about three planes at a time.”

Advertisement

Also speaking on some of the challenges faced by the airline industry, the Air Peace CEO stated that he expects that the incoming government will improve the ease of doing business in the airline industry, noting that the current situation is not worth celebrating.

Share this story:
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

News

BREAKING: Death penalty for fake drugs! *NAFDAC to push new law at NASS

Published

on

Those peddling fake and substandard drugs in Nigeria should be ready for the hangman’s noose, if the thinking of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), becomes the new law.

Mojisola Adeyeye, Director General of the body, who said on Friday that no other form of punishment is fitting enough, gave instances of where the application of such dangerous substances in form of health drugs, had led to fatalities.

Advocating that only stiff penalties would deter peddlers especially when deaths of children became involved, the NAFDAC boss, who appeared as a guest on The Morning Brief, a breakfast programme on Channels Television, said: “Somebody bought children’s medicine for N13,000 or something like that, another person was selling about N3,000 in the same mall. 

“That raised an alarm. Guess what? There was nothing inside that medicine when we tested it in our Kaduna lab. So, I want the death penalty. Because you don’t need to put a gun on the head of a child before you kill that child. Just give that child bad medicine.”

Advertisement

Advocating that the National Assembly and the judiciary to make the proposal a reality, adding that the agency was open to partnering with lawmakers and other stakeholders on the matter, she added: “You cannot fight substandard, falsified medicine in isolation. The agency can do as much as it can but if there is no deterrent, there’s going to be a problem.

“Somebody brought in 225mg of Tramadol that can kill anybody, fry the brain and you give a judgment of five years in prison or N250,000. Who doesn’t know that that person will go to the ATM and get N250,000? That is part of our problem.

“There are no strict measures to deter [people] from repeating the same thing. We can do as much as we can but if our law is not strong enough, or the judiciary is not strong enough to stand up, we’re going to have a problem.

“So, our judiciary system must be strong enough. But we are working with the National Assembly to make our penalties very stiff.  But if you kill a child by bad medicine, you deserve to die. We have a lot on our plate in stemming drug peddling.

“Withe about 2,000 staff members nationwide and limited funding, NAFDAC is constrained in carrying out its activities. So, when it comes to staffing, you’re right on the point. We are short-staffed and I am hoping things will be better.”

Advertisement

Share this story:
Continue Reading

News

Give us electoral offences tribunal to take care of heist – INEC  

Published

on

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday, made a fresh push for the creation of an electoral offences tribunal, to curb the cases of attacks on the Nigerian democratic system.

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman, told reporters at the commission’s first regular quarterly consultative meeting with the media that the tribunal had become important owing to the backlog of electoral offence cases.

He said: “A major obstacle to the speedy dispensation of justice in this regard is that electoral offences are not time-bound as is the case with post-election offences through the tribunals. Furthermore, they are solely prosecuted by the Magistrate and State High Courts in the jurisdiction where the alleged offences are committed,” the INEC chief told the gathering.

“No priority attention is given to such cases as the courts deal with a variety of other cases. Consequently, electoral offences are carried over from one General Election to another which may sometimes affect the diligent prosecution of the cases. It is therefore imperative to renew our call for the creation of the Electoral Offences Tribunal that have a specific jurisdiction and limited timeframe for the speedy dispensation of cases.”

Advertisement

Bemoaning the delay in the justice delivery system, citing the conviction of a returning officer in Akwa Ibom after six years in court, the INEC boss, said: “The recent successful prosecution of a Returning Officer in Akwa Ibom State is a case in point.

“The Commission has been diligently pursuing the case which arose from the 2019 General Election. In this particular case, it took nearly six years to achieve the successful prosecution at the trial court.

“Through our collaboration with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) cases involving 774 alleged offenders from the 2023 General Election are being prosecuted. So far, successful prosecutions have been recorded in Kebbi and Kogi States while our collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on vote-buying has yielded similar results in Lagos, Kwara, and Gombe States. Yet, many cases are still pending.”

Advertisement
Share this story:
Continue Reading

News

Again, terrorists attack Sokoto, kidnap 10 worshippers at a mosque

Published

on

A mosque in Bushe community, Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State, fell into the hands of bandits on Friday, after which 10 worshippers including the Imam were spirited away, adding to growing cases of terrorist attacks.

Channels Television reports that the gunmen invaded the mosque on Thursday while worshippers were performing their early morning Subhi prayer, quoting residents as saying that the gunmen had been molesting the people of the community for some time now, even with the presence of security agents.

Ahmed Rufai, spokesman of the Sokoto State Police Command, who confirmed the attack on Friday, said the police authorities were working with other security agencies to rescue the abducted victims.

A member of the Sokoto State House of Assembly, representing the Sabon Birni B state Constituency who also confirmed the attack, commended the security agencies for their timely intervention.

Advertisement

Share this story:
Continue Reading

Trending