Federal Government Detects ‘Serious Security Threats’ In Aviation, Moves Against Private Jet Owners

<h4>Federal Government Detects<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development Festus Keyamo &lpar;SAN&rpar; Thursday disclosed that the federal government has lost over N120 billion in revenue due to the illegal activities of the private jet owners&comma; regulatory loopholes and&comma; weak enforcement in the last one decade&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The minister&comma; who disclosed this at the ministerial press briefing series in Abuja&comma; said the federal government would crack down on illegal private jet operators in Nigeria by implementing stricter regulations to ensure compliance with aviation laws&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He said&colon; <em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;One of the hydra-headed monsters that we met when we came and we have decided to tackle it head on is the issue of using private jets for all kinds of illegal activities&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;They have been largely unmanned&comma; unchecked and they just operate the way they like&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Beyond that&comma; they also deny the federal government of revenue&period; This has been happening for the past 40 to 50 years&period; When I came they said &OpenCurlyQuote;ministers don’t bother&comma; they are the big men who own Nigeria&comma; you can’t tackle them and we are losing revenue’&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In fact&comma; the taskforce we set up said the federal government has lost N120billion in the last one decade on illegal charter operations&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>…Their modus operandi<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Explaining how the private jet owners short-changed Nigeria&comma; he said&colon; <em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;These licenses come with significantly different fees&period; The PNCF license is much cheaper because it is meant for private use—flying company directors&comma; family members&comma; or personal business trips&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;But if you want to operate commercial flights carrying passengers for a fee&comma; you must obtain a different&comma; more expensive license&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;These private jets are being used for business operations daily&comma; defrauding the government of revenue&period; Even worse&comma; some apply to fly out of the country on charter flights without proper documentation&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;In many cases&comma; authorities do not even have a full manifest of passengers or what is being transported&period; This is a serious security threat&comma;”<&sol;strong> <&sol;em>the minister further added&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Keyamo recalled instances of challenges faced identifying victims of private jet air crash owing to poor documentation practices&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Consequent upon this&comma; a taskforce was set up and <em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;at one point&comma; they even suggested shutting down the General Aviation Terminal <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;google&period;com&sol;">&lpar;GAT&rpar;<&sol;a>&comma; which serves private charter flights&comma; for a complete security overhaul&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;While we cannot shut down the commercial section&comma; we are reviewing their recommendations to implement necessary reforms without disrupting passenger movement&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Keyamo assured Nigerians that the government remains committed to enforcing aviation regulations&comma; because <em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the President has given us a free hand to address this problem&period; Regardless of who is affected&comma; we will ensure the law is followed&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Henceforth&comma; the control tower will not clear any aircraft to fly without the pilot filing the manifest of passengers on board&period; Whether you are a <strong>&OpenCurlyQuote;big man’<&sol;strong> or not&comma; the tower will not clear you for take-off unless passengers have presented their identity cards&comma;” he further stated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The minister also said <em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Nigeria currently has 16 active private airlines servicing domestic&comma; regional&comma; and international routes&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Moving forward&comma; the government aims to facilitate more codeshare agreements between Nigerian airlines and major international carriers&comma; fostering a stronger and more competitive aviation sector&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Content&comma; outside headline&comma; Blueprint<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;