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London flights: Air Peace cry of frustration *Airport officials asked plane to park ‘in the bush’ – Onyema
Allen Onyema, Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace Airlines, on Monday, recounted how elements within the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, are doing everything possible to frustrate the Nigeria-London-Nigeria flight operations, which commenced last weekend.
Narrating a tale of woes, which he said started more than seven years ago with several stumbling blocks deliberately put on the road to the operation, which eventually came to fruition on Saturday, March 30, the airline boss, spoke of how “wicked civil servants” tried to force the plane carrying passengers on the return flight from London to park at a disused terminal near the bush as one of the series of frustrations he had been forced to face in recent past.
A guest on The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on Arise Television, Onyema, stated that it took the decision of the said Air Peace management to block planes from other airline operators from accessing their own packing lots for the said officials at the airport to finally budge and allocate the said plane the right terminal to park and disembark its passengers.
Though the airline boss did not name the said officials, or the particular arm of the airport administration they belonged, he said the incident on Sunday, was not the first time, adding that he had cause to report the first incident to the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), which took steps to resolve it only for a repeat on Easter Day.
Hear him: “Let me tell you what happened yesterday at the international airport when our own aircraft landed. Thank God I was there. This thing had happened before and we reported to FAAN. Let me excuse the leadership of FAAN here. Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku, is doing fantastically well, herself and Director of Air Operations, Captain Abdullahi Mahmoud – they’re pained, they’re pained in the wickedness of the system – civil servants – the wickedness in the system is stinking.
“Your only carrier doing international operations in Nigeria, would land and you keep us somewhere in the bush, disused side of the airport and you expect us to be forcing passengers, bringing rickety buses to take international passengers to the new terminal, where these foreign airlines rejected when they opened. It was Air Peace, because it was my country that decided to go in there. They begged Air Peace to do that. We went in there.
“When they did the runway, they wanted to do the runway analysis after the lighting, it was Air Peace Nigeria begged, they didn’t have money to fuel a triple seven. A triple seven consumes about 8,800 litres of fuel per hour. It was Air Peace they brought. We even told them, let’s use our smaller planes because of the cost, but they said no, it was a triple seven they would need. We did it free of charge.
“I don’t want to enumerate what we have done both for the government and people of this country. Now, in the new airport, they would park us two kilometres away from the terminal and you expect us to be doing bus whatever. That plane that landed yesterday, it would have taken about six hours for people to exit that airport.
“Because, first of all, they put us near NAHCO shed, very far. Nobody is using that end. No aircraft, not even foreign or local. That was where they asked my pilot to park. Meanwhile C-23 at the new terminal was open where you could just park the aircraft and avio-bridge will key in. And when my captain called, they said they reserved it for a foreign airline at the expense of a Nigerian airline.
“They did it before. One of my captains, Captain Callistus Ifeanyi, disobeyed them and they wanted to punish him and I came out and Olubunmi Kuku and the management criticised that in fairness to her. They criticised that. Now, it happened again yesterday.
Our aircraft from London, was to be parked in one bush, two kilometres to the terminal and with full flight. So, imagine the time it would take to take people from that place to the terminal building. Imagine the time it would take to offload. It would have taken about nine hours. Nigerians would have hated Air Peace, because they won’t know. That was the game.
“So, you’re contending not with external conspiracies, but with internal conspiracies withing Nigeria. Some Nigerians are praying we fail. Well, the good thing is that nobody is God. The good thing is that 90 per cent of our country’s men and women are happy. That’s our consolation. But there are people out there, but they’re in the minority, so negligible and I don’t even bother with them, because they cannot scratch Air Peace – whatever they write, whatever they do, cannot scratch Air Peace Airlines.
“Well it happened yesterday and when the woman discovered this, she was livid with rage. I mean the MD of FAAN. But look at what I did. I called my Operations Control Centre who could reach the pilot, because I couldn’t connect with my pilot, I called my OCC, and told them, tell that pilot not to move that aircraft, block that taxiway. No airline in the world would have been able to park yesterday. British Airways landed and that was when they started making moves to tell us to where we rightly belonged.
“Remember, this woman had said on television earlier that a place had been dedicated to Air Peace as the home airline. When you go to Britain, you have the entire Terminal 5 for BA. But in my own country, some civil servants or some people didn’t see it. And the DG of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), was on board my aircraft. About four senior staff of NCAA were on board that aircraft.
“He had to go in because they had delayed the flight for about 30 minutes, standing in one place for 30 minutes. What kind of country is this? So, when the DG who was on board contacted the captain to know what was happening – I think he went into the cockpit and the people in the cockpit contacted the people in the tower – the airport control people and the captain told them that even the DG of NCAA was inside the aircraft, the guy said ‘so what?’
“That will show you some peoples determination not to see beyond their noses. But that wickedness will not last. One thing is that anybody that is fighting me or fighting anything that I’m interested in will have himself burnt and will regret at the end of the day.”
Hours after Mohammed Hayatu-Deen did, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, on Tuesday, also flatly rejected the outcome of the presidential primaries, of the African Democratic Congress, alleging widespread voter disenfranchisement and electoral malpractice.
Amaechi former Minister of Transportation and former Governor of Rivers State, described the announced results as “concocted,” insisting that the process failed to meet the standards of transparency and fairness earlier promised by the party.
He said in a statement: “I unequivocally reject the concocted results being announced,” Amaechi stated.
He said he had previously maintained that he would only accept the outcome of the primaries if the process was free, fair and transparent, stressing that the exercise did not reflect the democratic values the ADC claimed to represent.
“I will not accept results from a process that does not reflect the values that the ADC had pledged to uphold, to rescue Nigerians from the impunity and gross mismanagement that our country is currently facing in the hands of the ruling party,” he said.
Amaechi alleged that a significant number of party members were denied the opportunity to vote during the exercise.
“There’s no way that about eighty percent of members of the party were not allowed to vote, and you expect me to accept such results,” he stated.
The former Rivers State governor questioned the moral basis of the ADC criticising the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over alleged electoral malpractice while allegedly engaging in similar conduct internally.
“A party that criticizes the ruling APC and INEC for vote buying, rigging and writing of results, cannot be engaged in vote buying, writing of results, and other electoral malpractices that leads to the disenfranchisement of voters who are party members. This is not acceptable!” he declared.
Amaechi said the ADC was envisioned as a platform to amplify the voices of ordinary Nigerians and provide credible political alternatives irrespective of ethnicity, religion or social background.
His rejection of the outcome is expected to deepen tensions within the opposition party following the conclusion of its presidential primary election.
“These timeless virtues of devotion, selflessness, and submission to divine will are values our nation desperately needs today,” were the exact words with which Godswill Akpabio, attempted to rouse Nigerians to the ethos of unquestionable faith and service to the country.
Akpabio, Chairman of the National Assembly, who drew example from Prophet Ibrahim, admonished Nigerians to emulate his unwavering faith, obedience, and willingness to sacrifice for the sake of Almighty Allah.
The Senate President, who conveyed his sentiments via a statement by Eseme Eyiboh, also used the specifically hail President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his vice, Kashim Shettima and Muslim faithful in Nigeria and around the world as they celebrate Eid El Kabir.
Stressing that the occasion called for prayer and sober reflection on the theme of sacrifice, he added: “This sacred occasion reminds us of Prophet Ibrahim’s unwavering faith, obedience, and willingness to sacrifice for the sake of Almighty Allah.
“To our dear President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his vice, Senator Kashim Shettima and Muslim brothers and sisters, I felicitate with them on behalf of my family, constituents and the Senate on this blessed Eid. May the lessons of sacrifice, compassion, and generosity that define this season strengthen your faith and bring peace to your homes.
“As you share with the less privileged and extend love to neighbours of all faiths, you embody the true spirit of Nigeria. To all Nigerians, I urge us to use this solemn period to pray fervently for peace, security, and prosperity in our land. Let us pray for our troops in the frontlines, for farmers to return safely to their fields, and for unity to prevail over division in our Nation.
“Eid El Kabir also calls us to deep reflection on the future of our country. Just as Prophet Ibrahim was tested, Nigeria is in a season of testing. The sacrifices we make today in patience, in tolerance and in choosing hope over despair will determine the Nigeria our children inherit.
“The Renewed Hope Agenda of this administration, supported by the National Assembly, is anchored on that same principle: that meaningful progress often requires collective sacrifice.
“May Almighty Allah accept your prayers and sacrifices. May He heal our land, guide our leaders, and bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Barka da Sallah. Eid Mubarak.”
“I will not be attending the announcement of the ADC Presidential Election Results today. I am concerned by reports from across the country of widespread vote rigging, some of which I myself observed, and will therefore be taking advice on my next steps.”
These were the exact words of Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, one of the presidential aspirants of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), with which he cast a slur on the ongoing presidential primaries of the party, hinging his position on reports of fraud trailing the exercise.
Hayatu-Deen, a second timer in the search for the nation’s number one job, ran against Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former Vice President and Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, former Minister of Transportation.
In a statement on his assessment of the exercise which began on Monday, the renowned economist Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), used his X platform to convey his dissatisfaction with the process.
The ADC which said the collation for the exercise would take place in Abuja had urged aspirants, party leaders, delegates, and members to conduct themselves peacefully and uphold party unity.
Bolaji Abdullahi, its spokesman, who described the exercise as a defining moment for both the ADC and Nigerians seeking a credible political alternative, maintained that it remained committed to internal democracy and a transparent leadership selection process.
“The ADC remains proud to stand today as the only truly democratic party in Nigeria because it is the only political party whose choice of presidential candidate is determined through open primaries,” he said adding that the conduct of aspirants and party members during the exercise would reflect the leadership culture the ADC seeks to promote.
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