Amaechi’s Plane: House Wants Caverton Helicopters Prosecuted

Amaechi’s Plane: House Wants Caverton Helicopters Prosecuted

Governor Amaechi

Ernest Chinwo  and Onwuka Nzeshi

The House of Representatives  Thursday stated that it may seek the prosecution of Caverton Helicopters for allegedly misleading aviation authorities in the country to ground a private jet belonging to the Rivers State Government.

But in a swift reaction, Caverton Helicopters last night faulted the House position on the issue, insisting that it was not pressurised to deny the state government, even as it challenged the state government to show any mandate, contract, correspondence, or any form of payment to Caverton for providing the purported services to them in the last eight months as claimed.

The development came as the organised labour in the state announced that it would commence a two-day warning strike on May 27, should the police continue to prevent workers at Obio/Akpor Local Government Area from resuming duties at the secretariat.

Also, the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Chibudum Nwuche, explained his decision to back the Felix Obuah-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, which was perceived to be against Governor Chibuike Amaechi.

But the lower chamber of the National Assembly, while receiving the report of an investigation conducted on the controversial aircraft with the Joint Committee on Justice and Aviation, picked holes in the testimonies of Caverton Helicopters.

The report said inter alia that: “For providing information that led the authorities to wrongly believe that Rivers State Government falsified documents thereby leading to grounding of its aircraft, the Hon. Attorney-General of the Federation  is requested to consider prosecuting Caverton Helicopters under the provisions of S. 36(4) Civil Aviation Act, Cap. C13 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”

The joint committee stated that in view of its findings, the documents of the aircraft had indeed expired but faulted the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), for not giving the operators of the aircraft notice, as required by law, before grounding it.

The report recommended that the Rivers State Government should be allowed to comply with the necessary conditions for granting of all required permits and licences of Rivers State Government-owned Bombardier B700 Global Express Registration Number N565Rs.

It also urged the Ministry of Aviation to desist from undue interference in the day-to-day operations of the aviation regulatory authorities as envisaged by the law.

The aviation regulatory authorities, the report said, should be allowed to operate professionally and ensure compliance with international best practices in the industry.

On the warning strike, the state branches of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Unions Congress (TUC), at a joint media briefing in Port Harcourt, noted that it was saddening that despite a court order asking the police to vacate their siege on the council secretariat, the police had continued to defy the order based on some flimsy excuses. 

Chairman of the state NLC, Chris Oruge, said the union was not interested in the crisis rocking the state chapter of the PDP, adding that the union was frustrated by the failure of the police to obey the order of the court to open the gates of Obio/Akpor so that workers could go back to their normal duties.
Speaking on his decision to back Obuah’s leadership, Nwuche, while addressing journalists yesterday in Port Harcourt, said the PDP leadership under Chief Godspower Ake, was factionalised and dead.

“First of all the PDP in the state prior to the judgment of April 15 was factionalised and the party was without life. I can’t recall any meeting of the PDP in the state since that past six years; most members were as it were in limbo. They were not sure where the party was headed, nobody spoke to them,” Nwuche said.

Meanwhile, Caverton Helicopters, in a statement issued by its Communication Consultant, Mr. Waziri Adio, said it was pertinent for the public to look beyond political considerations and engage the facts as they were in the issue.

The statement stated that the only relationship that Caverton had with the aircraft was the request for its importation, which was communicated to the Minister of Aviation on August 12, 2012.

According to the statement, “this request was not consummated, as the Canadian company that mandated us to write the initial letter of request (ACASS) later told us to stay action as they were no longer in charge of the aircraft.”

“We want to restate that subsequent requests for clearance permit for the aircraft did not originate from us. We maintain that the requests sent for flight clearance in our name were forged and we are inviting security agencies to investigate the matter;

“We also maintain that the curious attempt to conflate request for importation with application for flight clearances is at best tendentious. The two are not, and cannot be, the same;

“And lastly, we challenge the Rivers State Government to show evidence that it has a contractual relationship with us on this aircraft. We challenge Rivers State to show any mandate, any contract, any correspondence, any form of payment to us for providing the purported services to them in the last eight months as they claimed. It is inconceivable that, as a business, we will be providing the purported services to them for free and without any form of documentation,” the statement added.