We don’t pay bribe for AOC -airline operators

Indigenous airline owners under the aegis of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) have denied claims that operators pay bribes to secure or renew the Air Operators’ Certificate (AOC) from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

Vice-Chairman of AON, Mr. Allen Onyema, said this during the reception of Air Peace’s fourth brand new Embraer 195-E2 which arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja on Thursday.

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His comment followed a recent claim by a private operator that AOC acquisition or renewal is for the highest bidder.

Onyema, who spoke after a meeting with the Director General of the NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, said the regulatory agency has never demanded bribes from any of its members.

He said, “Something happened a month ago where an operator went to the press to allege that NCAA is corrupt and that you have to bribe your way to get AOC and because they didn’t pay bribe, they were not given AOC.

“We want to state here categorically that the AON has implicit confidence in the NCAA. The other CAAs of the world do not do what the NCAA does for us in terms of safety oversight. But in Nigeria, we do not recognize our own.

“None of us has bribed anybody to get our AOC renewed. I have stayed for seven years in this business, some other members of the board of trustees of AON have stayed for about 25 years in this business and all of them have said that nothing like that has ever happened to them because even if the NCAA is not perfect, they are doing so much for the industry.

“Your applications may be delayed, maybe because of lack of manpower because there is so much to be done. There are up to 23 airlines jostling to get AOC and you cannot create an equal number of oversight inspectors to carry out their functions,” he said.

He urged the international community to disregard statement that portrays NCAA in a bad light. He said, “Most of us would want to apply for AOC today and get it tomorrow but one incident or accident may bring the entire industry down. We want to dissociate ourselves from whatever anyone must have said, it is not coming from us and it never came from us. We have confidence in the NCAA being led by Capt. Musa Nuhu.”