Niyi Laoye and hubby at Comedy Lane Launch

Mc Abbey launches Comedy Lane

It was a total night of fun, comedy and music on sunday 27th October 2013 when comedians and musicians turned up in mass to support one of Nigeria's finest comedians, Mc Abbey as he launched his comedy lane audio cd. Good luck to him. See photos from the event(if your one of the real life characters you can contact us via mail for your unbranded photos).

Police arrest four persons for abducting, mutilating 5-yr-old boy

What kind of world are we living in, DASTARDLY ACT

 The police in Enugu have arrested four persons for allegedly abducting and mutilating a five- year-old boy named Promise Osakwe.

It was yet to be established whether it was a ritual killing.

Those arrested include, Chizoba Stephen Nwobodo, alias Don Mike, John Okonkwo Nwobodo, alias Chairman, Okafor Jeremiah and Gideon Nwoha, alias Iga Ndiala, all from Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State.

The mutilated body of little Promise was discovered in a water tank.

The body was found without some parts and his manhood also cut off.

Police spokesman in Enugu, Ebere Amaraizu, said the operation was carried out by the Anti-Kidnap Unit of the Enugu Police Command upon receiving a report.

Amaraizu said that little Master Promise Osakwe was reportedly abducted on October 11, 2013 at their home town in Aninri and following the report, operatives promptly swung into action where the corpse was recovered inside an iron water tank as a result of intensive search by the operatives.

According to the police spokesman, intensive investigations by the operatives led to the arrest of the mentioned suspects in connection with the alleged incident.

The suspects, he said, are now helping the operatives in their investigations.

Amaraizu also disclosed that in a related development, the police successfully rescued one Mrs Chinenye Rose Onyia of Udi in Enugu State from kidnappers.

Onyia was earlier reported by the husband as having been kidnapped by unknown persons on October 16, 2013.

But following intensive efforts of the Anti-Kidnap operatives, the victim was tracked to Gboko in Benue State where she was found in the house of one James Terkula.

It was further gathered that she has been staying with the said James Terkula in Gboko through a self-arranged kidnapping under the guise that the husband was not taking good care of her.

Source: Nation

OGAGA laid to rest

Former shooting stars striker Ogaga has been committed to mother earth. May the family have the strength to bear the loss.

Frightening Revelations: Why planes may keep dropping off the skies

Last week, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, announced plans to embark on yet another round of safety audit of all domestic airlines operating in the country.  This is coming as an aftermath of the crash of Associated Airlines’ plane in Lagos which claimed the lives of at least 15 people.

The plan to audit the airlines will be one in a series of airlines’ audit which had trailed the aviation industry since aircraft started falling off the skies since 2005.  After the crash of Bellview Airlines in October 2005; Sosoliso in December 2005 and ADC in October 2008, each accident had come with safety audit of airlines, yet planes keep dropping off the skies.

What this means is that there appears to be a fundamental problem in the system that has not been addressed, and that has to do with policies enunciated for the industry by government.  There is a suggestion that no matter the volume of safety audit conducted on airlines, safety would remain elusive as long as the operating environment created for airlines remained harsh.

Neither would re-modelling of airports reverse this trend. The mortality rate of airlines in Nigeria isnhigh due to what observers describe as a very harsh operating environment.  Bellview, ADC, Sosoliso, Spaceworld, EAS, Harka, Okada, Oriental, Concord, Flash, Air Nigeria are some of the airlines that have exited the airspace in the last 10 years.

This is frightening.  Some others may yet follow.

Firstly, the tax regime introduced by government for airlines in the country creates a near asphyxiating ambience for operators. Airlines pay all sorts of charges which stifle them.

Consequently, this is the reason most airlines find it difficult to meet their financial obligations to suppliers, service providers and staff. Even the payment of salaries and aircraft maintenance, when due, becomes a Herculean task. Airlines in Nigeria pay some of the most outrageous charges in the world.

These come in form of ground rent, landing and take off, day and overnight parking charges as well as navigational fees; and these are exclusive of other multiple taxes imposed by government. Overnight parking charges range from between N25,000 and N30, 000 per aircraft. Airlines in Nigeria also pay government taxes as high as 18 per cent of sales, including Value Added Tax, VAT, Passenger Service Charge, PSC and NCAA’s TSC. These taxes and charges, to say the least, are stringent for the airlines to operate safely and profitably. And an airline that cannot operate safely and profitably is an accident waiting to happen.

Another reason air safety would remain a challenge in Nigeria, no matter the frequency of audit, is the cut-throat price of aviation fuel, otherwise known as JET-A1.  At present, this product sells for between N170 and N200 litre, depending on which part of the country it is being sourced. And because up to 40-45 per cent operational cost of airlines revolves around aviation fuel, the product is a huge cost component of their operations in the country.  Over time, fuel suppliers have insisted on dispensing their products on a cash and carry basis because of the inability of airlines to settle accumulated debts arising from previous purchases.

This has largely been responsible for some of the delays and flight cancellations experienced by passengers at airports across the country.

Currently, there is no sign to indicate that government is addressing the problem.   Most foreign airlines do their re-fuelling in neighbouring countries because of the high cost of aviation fuel in Nigeria but the local airlines have nowhere to go.

When it comes to the issue of aircraft maintenance, the situation is even more dire for the airlines. Aside from a few of the airlines which have capacity for A and B checks in the country, all airlines operating in Nigeria take their aircraft to other countries for their C-check, which comes up between nine and 18 months, depending, however, on the number of cycles an aircraft had clocked within the period. This costs airlines as much as $1 million per aircraft.

The situation is so because there is no standard hanger anywhere in the country where such a check can be conducted on aircraft.

Consequently, airlines in Nigeria take their planes to such countries as Ethiopia, Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, France and even tiny Mauritius for their C and D checks.

At the last Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul, MRO, conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in February, experts were unanimous on the leverage and cost-cutting advantage an MRO centre has on airline operations and safety.
They also attributed the absence of it in Nigeria to most of the safety issues that had arisen in the country this decade, particularly in the last couple of years.

Over time, stakeholders in the industry have clamoured for the establishment of a national hangar by the Federal Government as no one airline could shoulder the cost of establishing it.  Though successive aviation ministers bought into the idea, nothing was ever done to bring it to fruition. Had government set up an MRO centre, the issue of taking planes out of Nigeria and paying exorbitantly an hard currency would have since Stopped and Nigeria would have become the hub of maintenance in West Africa.

At the moment, there is no such centre in the region. To be able to cope with multiple taxes and crippling charges imposed by government, airlines have had to increase fares on frequent basis, thus reducing the number of people that can afford air travel. This is not good enough for a country angling to be the hub of aviation business in West Africa.

With regards to loans, stakeholders have also canvassed the creation of an Aviation Development Fund, ADF, where operators could secure facilities at single digit interest rate, and not the current rate of interest in commercial banks that has helped to further strangulate airlines in the country. Unfortunately, the tokenism that passed for an intervention fund suffered greatly from corrupt practices. One other area government has stifled the ability of airlines to earn sufficient revenue to operate safely and profitably is the continuous granting of multiple entries and frequencies to foreign airlines who,at the moment, do aviation business in Nigeria.

What other governments do to grow their aviation sector with a view to driving economic growth and create jobs is to discourage granting such leverages to foreign airlines operating into their territories.  This is done to protect local airlines which would assist foreign airlines distribute their passengers domestically and make money.  Today, virtually all the foreign airlines in the country, including British Airways, Lufthansa, KLM, Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways, enjoy multiple entries and frequencies in the country, with some even operating two frequencies from one airport per day.  This situation does not only engender capital flight but also sounds the death knell for domestic airlines in Nigeria.

Nigeria currently has Bilateral Air Services Agreement, BASA, with several countries, whose airlines do business here, without an enforcement of the doctrine of reciprocity. It does appear that the Aviation Ministry is content with earning royalties from the host governments of foreign airlines than work to ensure that Nigerian carriers are strong enough to reciprocate BASAs.  Such royalties are just a fraction of what would come to Nigeria, if the local airlines reciprocate the BASAs.

Now, talking about the ability of the regulatory agency to really ensure safety, against the backdrop of Associated Airlines’ crash, the issue to ponder is whether the NCAA has the capacity, in terms of personnel, for effective oversight of airlines in Nigeria?

Observers insist this is doubtful and may explain the reason why planes keep falling off the skies, in spite of constant audit.

Sunday Vanguard  was told that NCAA lacks the requisite personnel to properly carry out its oversight function on airlines, particularly with regards to safety inspectors who should check aircraft before take-off – safety inspectors are very experienced aviators. Based on the preliminary report of the Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB, on the crashed Associated Airlines’ plane, there are suggestions that the aircraft may not have enjoyed the benefit of thorough inspection by any NCAA inspector before take-off. Unconfirmed reports have it that the agency currently does not have more than 10 time-tested safety inspectors for the whole country, with greater percentage of the personnel concentrated in Lagos and Abuja.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has control over 22 airports in the country, which are exclusive of those owned by states and planes fly passengers into these airports.

During the time of the immediate past director-general of the agency, Dr. Harold Demuren, he always admitted that NCAA lacked adequate number of safety inspectors and that the few available were aging.

The umbrella body of cabin crew in Nigeria, the National Cabin Crew Association, NACCA, expressed concern over this development when the Dana airliner crashed in June last year and wrote to the Aviation Minister to address the issue.

The letter, dated February 7, 2013, highlighted the paucity of safety inspectors on the part of the NCAA, and called for the agency to be fortified with more inspectors.  The group’s concern stemmed from the number of its members that had died in plane crashes since 2005.  It also called for the reversal of the system where airlines bear the cost of NCAA oversight personnel who travel overseas to inspect foreign training centres and aircraft airworthiness, noting that aside from putting more burden on airlines, the practice also could lead to compromises on the part of the personnel. Besides, the agency lacks the necessary autonomy to do its work without overbearing influences from the supervising ministry.

Although the new Civil Aviation Act of 2006 gave the NCAA autonomy, as part of the requirement for Nigeria to attain U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, Category 1 certification, which the country achieved in 2010, it does appear now that that autonomy is only on paper.

This is because the director-general of the agency cannot take very critical decisions that may even affect lives, without first seeking the approval of the minister.  Unless the status-quo is reversed, Nigeria stands the risk of losing the certification, which the Federal Government fought so hard to get.

From the foregoing, it is obvious that it would be difficult to ensure air safety as long as the operating environment for local airlines in the country remain harsh.  Government needs to start addressing issues raised here rather than see aviation as one sector it must make money from to make up for shortfall in oil revenue.  Until these are done, planes may keep dropping off the skies, despite safety audits – but God forbid

Source: Vanguard

Why we deleted armoured cars from list

By Emman Ovuakpor

By Emman Ovuakporie

Hon Nkeuruka Onyeojocha is the House of Representatives’ Committee Chairperson on Aviation. In this chat, she speaks on the investigative hearing on the alleged purchase of bullet proof cars by the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, and other aviation-related issues.

Nigerians generally believe that your Committee actually approved the purchase of the BMW armoured cars?
The record speak for itself. I can give you  copies of the budget. They asked for two BMW armoured cars in their proposal.  All members of the Committee rejected it outrightly without amendment. We knew that nobody needs armoured cars as far as NCAA and the law establishing NCAA is concerned.  There was no way we would have allowed it in the budget. So we asked them to take their proposal back and remove it entirely. So the budget that we approved did not have armoured cars .  We wonder how they got the approval to buy the cars.  And for God’s sake, if N240 million was approved for 25 vehicles for the 22 airports across the federation, we did so because we didn’t want them to blackmail us that they needed cars, they were renovating airports and doing a lot of things and we didn’t  give them money to buy vehicles to ensure movement of persons. The vehicles we approved were clearly spelt out and, on the last two vehicles, they said they wanted them for the inspection of perimeter fencing.

Would anybody use armoured cars to inspect perimeter fencing?

I don’t want to join issues here because we are still investigating?
Many people think the decision by the President Goodluck Jonathan to constitute a three-man Committee to probe the procurement of the armoured cars could jeopardize your own investigations. Do you agree?

The point is that Nigerians forget too soon; even on the DANA  plane crash, we stood our grounds because a regulator cannot be an operator.  In this case, if an accounting officer has done something that is not correct, we would pinpoint it and  make the person   pay for it. One thing that is very clear is that we have three arms of government. There are rules, there are procedures and because we are investigating, I don’t think it is wrong for the executive to investigate themselves. We should commend the President for setting up the Committee because we need to get to the bottom of the matter. The most important thing is to let the international community see us as serious and credible people. My view is that we are working for one Nigeria and we want to move the aviation sector to the next level. So if setting up of 20 Committees would take our aviation sector to the next level, it is a welcome idea. I don’t like this idea of people saying the president wants to shield somebody and so that is why he set up the ad-hoc Committee. And then, two heads are better than one. Maybe in the course of our investigations, we may not even discover any serious thing; maybe they would be the one that would discover something worthwhile. So, the bottom-line is that, let Nigeria get the best.

Stakeholders say misapplication of funds would impact negatively on the aviation sector. Are they right?
Misapplication of funds is an issue entirely on its own.
It’s a problem everywhere but we do exercise our oversight functions over the ministry to correct the anomaly. But I appreciate the fact that we are in a new phase under the transformation agenda and so it would take time for people to adjust, but it has little or nothing to do with safety issues because NCAA acknowledged that their responsibility revolves around safety of our planes. Taking money to buy cars might not be the issue because equipment were provided for NAMA, NIMET and other agencies in the aviation sector. So I don’t want Nigerians to lose hope that, due to one case of misapplication of funds, it is going to affect the sector.

Is there remarkable improvement in the aviation sector?
Of course, that we are investigating the Aviation Ministry does not mean that all is not well with the sector. The aviation sector has improved tremendously even from where it was one week ago to where we are now. What is happening is a healthy development. It would put us in check. People would know that it is not just coming to meet us at the National Assembly for us to appropriate, but we need to scrutinize the budget that we approve. It is getting better and so the future is bright for the aviation sector and for all the other sectors. Before now, somebody would see this kind of thing and gloss over it.  The controversy over the procurement of the BMW armored cars is a healthy one. It would help us to get our acts right.

The issue is about people knowing that this country belongs to all of us; it does not matter whether I am involved or somebody else is involved. Under the transformation agenda, we would experience challenges. When you fight corruption, corruption would fight back. For the Aviation Minister, I pity her. When she came with the transformation agenda in the aviation sector, she should have known that there would be all sorts of challenges. When she started, I said for the fact that she was changing the roofs, to superior electric bulbs, those benefiting  from the bulbs by going to buy them in Wuse market would not have any reason going to buy them on daily basis. So they would get angry. The same applies to the person making money by supplying diesel to provide electricity in the airports. You don’t expect him to be happy if the minister ensures the repair of all the cables that paved the way for uninterrupted power supply in the airports.So for stepping into a place and even doing  certain things, anything you do that is out of place, you are in trouble.

How do you assess the performance of this year’s budget in the aviation sector?

This year, we have not done that yet. We wanted to go on oversight when the House adjourned. When
we contacted the ministry at that point, they said they were going to Canada for ICAO conference and so we postponed it till the time they would return, and when they came back, there was the Associated Airlines plane crash and then came the Sallah break and, as we were resuming, we were inundated with the issue of the BMW armoured cars.

But the NCAA is arguing that the armoured cars were desirable in view of the security challenges in the polity?
You brought a proposal, because, as far as I’m concerned, the budget of the executive is from the National Assembly; and, in our wisdom because we are all Nigerians, northerners are in our Committee, people from Niger Delta etcetera, we said, yes, we have peculiarities but not for armoured cars. Put the security of lives and property in place. How many people will two armoured cars carry?  Some international best practice does not suit us. I am from one village in Nigeria and there are certain things you would come and introduce to my people that would be a total mess.

The most important thing is that the NCAA has so many other things they could have been talking about. We are talking about a sector that most of its workforce is ageing. It needs to intensify its training and retraining.

What is your take on the persistent call on the Aviation Minister to resign?
She is entitled to fair hearing and, until we finish our investigations; until you indict somebody, you don’t go into that.

This is why I refused to talk before these investigations are completed. I chose to speak based on what we heard yesterday. You allow fair hearing and, of course, you have to get to a bridge before you cross it. It is too early to call for somebody’s resignation because one of the questions that we asked was, were the cars appropriated for under any law? When the investigations are concluded, then we know who should be asked to resign.  It is too early to say Oduah should resign.

Source: Vanguard.