Friday 18 January 2013

Reps Insist on Banning Dana Air, Demuren's Sacking


House of Representatives said on Thursday  its resolution asking the Federal Government to revoke the operating licence of Dana Air was irreversible.
It said   the recommendations of the House report on the June 3, 2012 Dana Air crash in Iju Ishaga, Lagos, should be fully implemented by government.
One  of the recommendations demanded the sacking of the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Dr. Harold Damuren,  for alleged professional misdeeds.
A member from Delta State, Mr. Osai Osai, in a motion, observed that the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, flouted the House report by authorising Dana Air to resume operations on January 4 while the lawmakers were on break.

 Osai recalled that the minister allowed the airline to resume operations without “first addressing many issues that arose from the June crash, like safety and payment of compensation to families of victims”.
On the Dana licence, Osai said the House called for its revocation on the grounds that “it was not issued in compliance with NCAA Regulations Guidelines 2009”.
He noted that another recommendation asked the Central Bank of Nigeria to “recover the N35.5bn intervention fund extended to Air Nigeria through the United Bank for Africa, but which was diverted to other private usage.”
Osai stated that rather than implement the recommendations, Oduah ignored the House report by vacating the earlier “grounding order” on Dana Air.
Speaker of the House, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, who presided over the session,  did not allow further debate on the motion.
He admitted an amendment to the motion by a member from Abia State, Mr. Uzor Azubuike, directing the Committee on Legislative Compliance to “ensure that the House resolution on Dana Air crash is implemented”.
The motion was endorsed in a unanimous voice vote.
In another motion, the House advised the  government to immortalise the late First Republic Minister of Finance, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, for his contribution to nation building.



Source: The Punch

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