The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has denied any participation in the alleged sale of aircraft registered in Nigeria and said that inquiries into the claims are still ongoing.
This was said by Public Affairs and Consumer Protection Director Michael Achimugu when he appeared on TVC News’ “Beyond 100 Days program” on Tuesday night.
Achimugu dismissed the charges in the media reports as unfounded and emphasized the importance of a thorough investigation.
“These charges are legitimate and grave. Therefore, the wise course of justice is to look into these claims. Achimugu added, “You never investigate a situation like that without first speaking with the individuals who have been mentioned.”
The aircraft in question are a Boeing 737-300 registered 5N-YSM and an Airbus A340-600 registered 5N-AAM.
These aircraft are now kept in storage at Mehrabad Airport in Iran and Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, respectively.
They allegedly violated international sanctions against Iran by being sold to an Iranian airline.
Foreign media reports that the Middle East Forum Observer asserted that Azman Air was one of numerous businesses purportedly involved in Mahan Air’s recent attempts to circumvent sanctions in Africa.
But before such sales could take place, Achimugu explained, the aircraft would have to be deregistered in Nigeria, which hasn’t happened yet.
“We have not been involved in any aircraft deals from the NCAA’s perspective. Since they are Nigerian-registered aircraft, they must have been deregistered in order to be sold. Here, that hasn’t been accomplished. We must therefore look into how any aircraft would have been sold,” he stated.
The representative also emphasized that there are no particular specifics in the stories.
As far as we are aware, no such incident has occurred as of yet. Like you, we have seen reports that made no mention of specifics. Before being sold, how were these planes deregistered? We must look into it. Additionally, these inquiries are still being conducted.
The purported disabling of transponders on certain airplanes is one of the main issues being investigated. Since the event allegedly happened outside of Nigerian jurisdiction, the NCAA has contacted the Iranian Civil Aviation Authority for clarification.
However, the problem of the transponder shutting off is of special relevance. To get clarification on that, we have already written to the Iranian CAA. In the event that a transponder was disabled outside of our jurisdiction, the country’s CAA, or Air Traffic Control ought to have complained to us.
Such complaints have not been made to us. We couldn’t have known, therefore. For that reason, we are looking for clarification,” Achimugu clarified.
The NCAA maintains that reports of aircraft sales or deregistration are not currently supported by any facts.
“There is no proof that any aircraft has been sold anywhere as of yet,” he continued. Aircraft have been sold, according to the report that is currently being circulated. That is not supported by any evidence. The planes must be deregistered in Nigeria before they can be sold. Nobody has done that. Therefore, we are unaware that any aircraft have been sold. As I mentioned, an investigation is being conducted. And we’ll discover what took place.
He promised that the public would be informed of the investigation’s conclusions. He declared, “It will be out there as soon as the investigations’ findings are out.”
