•Calls for overhaul of aviation sector
Former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu yesterday visited the survivors of the AssociatedAviation crash at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), where they are being treated.
The aircraft which was conveying the body of the former Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu and some others to Akure crashed on Thursday after taking off in Lagos.
Shortly after landing at the Murtal Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) visited the victims. He was accompanied by his wife Senator Oluremi, the interim spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. Adeyemi Ikuforiji and other party stalwarts.
The former Lagos governor spent some time at the ward.
He described the death of the former Ondo State governor as a great loss to the country, describing Agagu as a good man he will miss despite their partisan differences.
He said Nigerians should give thanks to God for sparing the lives of Agagu’s son: Feyi and the son in law in the crash, affirming that government needs to fix the corruption and rot in the aviation sector.
Speaking in an interview on arrival at the airport, he described the crash as a national disaster, and called on the Federal Government to urgently overhaul the aviation sector.
He said until professionals are put in place to oversee the industry, the country may not meet the global standard of aviation it desires.
Rather than put the right personnel and equipment in place including a world standard runway, government he said has used the aviation sector to victimise perceived political enemies , whose aircraft are either grounded or recalled mid air.
He cited examples of the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi and the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
Asiwaju said “Agagu was a committed family man. Tunji (Okusanya) was a close friend of every one of us. But God has done one thing, has shown us His wonders. In the midst of all of these, Feyi Agagu survived, his brother in law survived.
“He has given room for us to give thanks to God. Nigeria’s aviation sector is a risk, we have never allowed professionals to run the Aviation industry, and we created too much bureaucracy. Where are the professionals, where are the engineers? What is the age of the plane and the records of maintenance? But when they have already compromised the office, they waste our valuable lives and time.”
He lamented that corruption has crippled the system, as according to him, “We have to remove corruption that is a cancer in our society. We have to remove ethnicity and clannishness in our society; it is a shame on our society.”