Minister of State for Air Transportation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode warned yesterday that the Federal Government would withdraw the licence of any airline operator, be it domestic of international, which allows its aircraft used for trafficking, smuggling or abduction of human beings.
Fani-Kayode, who yesterday in Abuja issued the stern warning to all domestic and international airline operators and officials at a briefing on the alleged abduction and smuggling of a 13 year-old girl out of Nigeria by a yet-to-be-determined kidnaper, through Virgin Atlantic Airlines� plane, vowed that the Federal Government would not tolerate such nefarious activity in the aviation industry and would therefore impose the ultimate sanction on any airline, which intentionally or otherwise, involve itself in such an act.
According to him, �I as a minister of aviation would not accept a situation where our children, when I say our children, I mean any child that is within the confine of the borders of Nigeria is put on a plane, whether it�s a domestic one or international and flown out of this country without the consent of the parents or the relevant person. Its something that we need to put a stop to and we will definitely put a stop to it.
A 13 year-old daughter of Mr. Patrick George, a Nigerian and Managing Director of Advanced Business Technologies Limited was allegedly abducted and smuggled to the United Kingdom from Nigeria on December 13, 2004 on a Virgin Atlantic aircraft.
The girl, an only child of George was found in France after two years but not without a lot of painful efforts and a high-level international network.
George said his counsel, Chief Ladi Rotimi-Williams, was pursuing the case and has filed a suit against the appropriate parties adding that he wanted to ensure that his would be the last that would ever happen in Nigeria.
Fani-Kayode blamed everybody in the aviation sector for the unfortunate incident that happened to George and apologised on behalf of the Federal Government.
He however assured that he would see to the logical end of the case and ensure that such thing does not happen again in Nigeria.
�I want to apologise to you on behalf of the Government that this could have ever happened at all. And I want to assure you that I would personally see the Inspector-General of Police and ask him how far he has gone and we would see to it that this sort of a thing never happens again,� he said.
General Manager, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Mrs. Samantha Olson acknowledged that the incident occurred through the airline and stated that her airline was helping the Police in its investigations to bring the perpetrator(s) to book.
�We are not denying that it happened. Investigations have not been closed yet. We will continue to support police investigation and we would continue to work with the Police, the Ministry and the Immigration on this matter,� she said.
Mar272007