By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Senator representing Osun Central constituency of Osun State at the National Assembly, Mr Olusola Adeyeye, has accused one of the airline operators in the country, Arik Air, of putting the lives of Nigerians at risk.
The lawmaker said the company was allegedly doing this by not servicing its airplanes properly.
Speaking on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday, Mr Adeyeye claimed on three different occasions, he boarded Arik Air with faulty air conditioning system.
He further accused the airline and others of operating on substandard maintenance.
Citing Order 43, Senator Adeyeye cites Order 43 on a matter of urgent public importance, told his colleagues that, “I was on an Arik (Air) aircraft on three different occasions and the air conditioning did not work.”
“Aircrafts take off without being properly serviced or serviced on time and this is unfair to Nigerian citizens,” Mr Adeyeye lamented.
In his remarks, the Senate President, Mr Bukola Saraki, who presided over the session, thanked the lawmaker for bringing the matter up for deliberation.
Mr Saraki said, “Anything that has to do with the lives of our people should be looked into.”
He then asked “Chairman of the Committee on Aviation take this matter up and report back to us within a week. Let us find out what the issues are.”
Meanwhile, efforts by Business Post to get the reaction of Arik Air through its Head of Communications, Mr Adebanji Ola, on this matter were not successful as at press time.
Arik Air, formerly a privately-owned firm, was established in 2006, but was taken over by the Nigerian government in 2017 through the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) after it failed to repay its $429 million debts.
In a recent report by ThisDay, Mr Ola admitted that the future of Arik Air could be threatened because of the present state of the airline.
He was reported to have said Arik Air existed today and maintained existing workforce because of the intervention by AMCON, pointing out that if not for the intervention, Airk Air would have gone under in 2017.
In recent times, Arik Air has been in the news for the wrong reasons, which is becoming very worrisome to some of its loyal customers.
Aduragbemi Omiyale