*As FG loses over N150bn in revenue
By Citizenship Daily
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered a crackdown on operators of illegal private jets across the country.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo made the revelation in Abuja on Thursday at the Ministerial Press Briefing on the achievements of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.
Keyamo also revealed that the Federal Government has lost no fewer than N150 billion in revenue to the illegal charter operations by operators of the private jets.
Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) said the illegitimate activities of those private jet owners amounts to economic sabotage and that the President has resolved to bring it to an end.
He said the operators of those commercial and private jets often refuse to disclose the identities of individuals on board.
He said henceforth, the identities of passengers in such jets must be disclosed to airport officials on demand, otherwise they will not be cleared to fly.
“The tower will not clear any chartered aircraft that fails to disclose the identity of the VIP passengers in the aircraft,” he said.
He said going forward, it will not matter whether it is ‘big men’ that are in those jets, that the President has already given the go ahead to fight them. “And we are going to fight them,” he said.
“I have already told them that I will tackle them”, keyamo said.
He added that a task force set up to look into the matter had last two weeks submitted its report, and action will take place immediately.
Keyamo listed some of the progress made by the Ministry to include facilitating the implementation of the agreement to reopen new opportunities for local airlines to operate on Nigeria-US route and enhance bilateral trade.
He said the ministry also facilitated resumption of flights by Emirates to Nigeria in October 2024, and a codeshating agreement with Air Peace to shuttle passengers on international flight to and from their local destinations on one ticket.
He said the long neglected Hajj Terminals have been renovated, the African Aviation and Aerospace University has taken off, and the Abuja and Port Harcourt airports have received intetnational awards for resilience, emergency managements and improved standards.
The minister said he has also signed an MoU with Boeing to enhance aircraft acquisition, among other achievements of the Ministry.
