… I’m not aware of any law suit – Sirika
… no law can stop the Nigeria Air project – Sirika
A Federal High court sitting in Lagos on Tuesday gave an interim injunction to halt the Nigeria Air project proposed to be the national carrier of the country.
This came barely a few hours after the minister of aviation, senator Hadi Sirika, told journalists that he was not aware of any lawsuit against the Nigeria Air project.
The minister made the denial at an appreciation ceremony organised by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) there is no court in Nigeria that can stop the airline from operating.
Some domestic carriers had last Friday, November 11 charged the federal government to court requesting that it stops the national carrier deal and withdraw the Air Transport Licence (ATL) already issued to the airline by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
The airlines claimed that the firm which served as transaction adviser for the transaction was incorporated in March last year and alleged that the company was linked to the aviation minister.
The carrier further alleged that ATL issued to Nigerian Air did not pass through the normal security clearance.
Besides, the airlines said the federal government’s partnership with Ethiopian Airlines on the project will send the domestic airlines out of business by opening up the domestic air travel market to Ethiopian Airlines.
Nigeria Air, Ethiopian Airlines, Sirika, and attorney general of the federation and minister of justice Mr. Abubakar Malami are the defendants in the suit, while the airlines and its body – Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) represent the plaintiffs.
According to him, the complainants were invited to be part owners in the airline but they neither accepted nor declined the offer.
He said: “I am not aware that anyone is in court. I don’t have any court papers; otherwise, I am not interested. I cannot see any court or any rational court that will say that I am stopping somebody from establishing a company because Nigeria Air is a limited liability company known to the Nigerian laws in the corporate affairs commission.
“If anybody wants to come and invest in that company, there is no law in Nigeria that stops him from doing so.
“If there are foreigners coming to invest, nobody stops them from investing. You can own a company 100 per cent. What would you say to Shell, Unilever, May and Baker, PWD and Julius Berger?
“There are companies in Nigeria registered by Nigerian law and people are coming to invest. This is what we want. We want foreign direct investment (FDI). If people or Nigerians are investing in the airline with over $200 million in Nigeria, so what? We want more of them.”
The minister said he had been fair to all the stakeholders in the aviation industry, stressing that there was neither a policy nor project he initiated and implemented without carrying everyone along.
Particularly on the national air, the minister said it would be unfair for the stakeholders, including the airlines, to claim that they were never part of the project from inception to actualisation.
“Every information or documents pertaining to the project is domiciled at the ministry of aviation and Infrastructure Construction Regulatory Commission (ICRC) which are driving processes leading to the national carrier.
“I heard that the airline owners said that they were not carried along. If you were there at the National Assembly, I told them where I met them like Max Air, Azman, Air Peace, Ibom, everybody where I met them and told them to please come and partner in this airline and own it, telling them that it is meant for the private sector.
“I told Air Peace to come and invest in this one and one of them said to me that I should make it formal.
“I said to him that I met you in your own place, met with you and invited you and told him that I have put it in all places as adverts.
“I also put it in the Economist, on television and also put it on the website. How formal can that be? I always beg them to say all you stakeholders are invited to be owners of the airline as private sector people. Nobody will say he was not invited,” he said.
He described it as totally unacceptable and unfair for stakeholders to claim that they have not been carried along on the national carrier project, adding that anybody who is parading such information is working contrary to the actualisation of the aviation road map.
However, a suit filed at the Federal High Court, Lagos by Azman Airlines, Air Peace Limited, Max Air, United Nigeria Airlines and Top Brass Aviation which stand as the plaintiffs sort perpetual injunction restraining the defendants (Nigeria Air, Ethiopian Airlines, Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, and the Attorney General of the Federation) their agents, servants, officers, privies, and principals from perfecting, continuing and transferring the operations of Nigeria Air by the 3rd and 4th Defendants to the 2nd Defendant.
In the suit filed by their counsel, Nureini Jimoh (SAN), the plaintiffs declared that the action, conduct, and or decisions in the sale of the shares and operations of the 1st Defendant (Nigeria Air) is in violation of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, SEC Nigeria Consolidated Rules & Regulations 2013 (as amended in 2022), Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) Act, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Convention, Civil Aviation Act, Public Procurement Act, Concession Regulatory Commission (Est.) Act, 2005, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, Procurement Processes for Public Private Partnership in the Federal Government under the National Policy on Public Private Partnership (N4P), Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations, 2015, and other regulatory statutes on aviation, companies, and investment laws in Nigeria.
They also declared that the entire administrative actions and decisions of the 3rd (Sirika) and 4th Defendants (Attorney General of the Federation) in the sale of the shares of the 1st Defendant to the 2nd Defendant (Ethiopian Airlines) and its consortium is invalid, void, and of no effect.
They equally declared that the 2nd Defendant was incompetent to bid for shares in the 1st Defendant (Nigeria Air) and commence business accordingly.
The plaintiff prayed the court to set aside the entire bidding/selection process(es) for the “Nigeria Air” project as well as the approval, grant, or selection of the 2nd defendant by the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Defendants in the process.
Other prayers are for the immediate, fresh, and transparent bidding process(es) involving the plaintiffs being the indigenous Airline Operators in Nigeria rightly entitled to participate in the process, an order directing the immediate revocation and cancellation of the Air Transport License (ATL) issued by the NCAA to the 1st Defendant.
They equally sought an order of N2,000,000,000.00 (Two Billion Naira, only) as damages for the injury suffered by the Plaintiffs and still suffering as a result of the wrongful exclusion of the Plaintiffs, wrongful action; unlawful bidding and selection processes and their wrongful projection of the Plaintiffs as not having properly, rightly and timely bid for the Nigeria Air project.
After hearing the submission of Jimoh, the court after careful consideration of the application and submission of the counsel ordered an injunction, restraining the defendants, either by themselves, agents, privies, principals, or any other persons whosoever from executing the proposed, or draft national carrier establishment and an agreement by the Federal Government of Nigeria.