At various sittings in the National Assembly yesterday various decisions were reached as regards the issues of air travel in Nigeria. This is coming after the bloody crash that occured in Iju-Ishaga on Sunday.
The Senate at a sitting on Tuesday after considering a motion brought by Senator Hope Uzodinma and 29 others has temporarily revoked the license of Dana Air to operate in the Nigerian airspace until the airline’s culpability is determined.
Also the Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Agency, Harold Demuren, and other top brass of the agency have been suspended until the outcomes of ongoing investigations are made known.
Senate spokesman, Enyinnaya Abaribe, said, “the Senate expects that the officials of the regulatory agencies to step aside for the period of investigation. Senate also directed that Dana Airline should be shut down during the cause of the investigations.”
Head of the probe committee and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Hope Uzodinma in the motion he presented before the senate said, “the Dana Air crash might be indicative of a greater rot in the aviation industry which could portend more danger ahead.”
Meanwhile, House of Representatives on Tuesday directed that immediate air-worthiness checks must be conducted on all aircraft flying domestic routes in the country.
It also asked the Committee on Aviation of the National Assembly to investigate the remote and immediate causes of Sunday’s plane crash in Lagos.
The resolution followed a motion on urgent national importance moved by the Chairman of the House Committee on Aviation, Mrs. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha.
Onyejeocha recalled that a day before the crash, a Nigerian registered cargo aircraft owned by Allied Air also crashed in Accra, Ghana, killing at least 10 people.
Part of the motion read, “The House further notes with concern that the said crashes are coming on the heels of similar crashes involving Bellview Airlines, 2005, Sosoliso Airlines, also in 2005 and Aviation Development Company Airline (ADC) in 2006.
“Worried that the latest Dana aircraft crash was even more tragic than the previous ones with casualty figures reported to be about 190 people, including 153 passengers, six crew members and about 37 people on the ground and counting.”