House Of Reps ,Others Condemn Amaechi's Plane Grounding As Rivers Govt Re-Affirms Ownership

The state Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mrs Ibim Semenitari, in a statement circulated to the media in Port Harcourt, on Tuesday, also explained that the Bank of Utah in the USA is the trustor of the aircraft.

The Felix Obuah-led executive council of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State had accused the state government of perpetrating fraud with the purchase of the aircraft on Monday, during a press briefing, giving the state government a 48-hour ultimatum to explain the status of the aircraft and its ownership.

Obuah was reacting to a report he claimed to have obtained from one of the nation’s aviation regulatory agencies, which had indicated that the aircraft did not belong to Rivers State government and had operated illegally in the country over time.

But Semenitari, in the statement, explained that the state government had to register the aircraft as a US aircraft for ease of operations, adding that to qualify for an N registration, an operator had to be an American citizen.

“Aircraft N 566 RS arrived Nigeria and has been operating since October 2012. It was bought by Rivers State government and registered as a US aircraft in the first instance, to preserve value and provide ease of operation and sourcing of available pilots,” she said.

The House of Representatives, on Tuesday, condemned the reported grounding of a bombardier B700 global express private jet belonging to the Rivers State government, while it described the action of NAMA as a witch-hunt of perceived political opponents.

The House, therefore, mandated its committees on Justice and Aviation to investigate the circumstances of the incident and report back within one week.

The resolution was sequel to a motion of urgent national importance, moved by Honourable Ahmed Idris, who described the incident as “detrimental to any democracy and tends towards dictatorship and draconian tendencies typical of the military era.”

He added that such action on the part of NAMA “raises serious issues as to the abuse of powers by the executive and the use of state machinery to with-hunt perceived political opponents.”

Meanwhile, reactions have continued to trail the grounding of the aircraft, with a former commandant of Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retd), saying that the aviation agencies have exposed the country to ridicule.

Ojikutu alleged that in an attempt to compound the issue at hand and implicate itself, the aviation regulatory agency said the licence of the aircraft had expired since April 2, 2013.

He said it would be a big indictment if it was true that the papers of the aircraft had expired almost a month before the aircraft was grounded, even as he added that it portended serious problem to safety and security of the country.