BY VINCENT UJUMADU
AWKA – FORMER Governor of Anambra State and the Senator representing Anambra Central in upper legislative chambers, Dr. Chris Ngige has said the National Assembly will initiate a bill for a law forbidding aircraft above 20 years to operate in Nigeria.
The senator, who spoke at Ndiowu, Orumba North local government area of Anambra State during a condolence visit to the family of late Mr. Onyeka Collins Anyene whose family of six and three in-laws perished at the Dana Airline crashlast month, said it was suicidal for Nigeria to allow obsolete aircraft to be flying the country's airspace.
He explained that the law would make it mandatory for the relevant aviation regulatory bodies to be alive to their responsibilities to ensure safety, stressing that the law would provide for heavy penalties on defaulters. Ngige argued that it would be improper to allow the present happenings in the aviation industry to continue.
According to him, "it is sad that in this modern world, air accidents that can be easily averted have become a recurring decimal in Nigeria. The National Assembly is poised to initiate a bill that would ensure safety in the industry."
Ngige frowned at the heavy reliance on road and air transport, calling on the Federal Government to speed up the upgrading of the rail transport system which he described as much safer.
According to him, "the pressure on our highways and air space is so much and that is why we need to diversify. The Federal Government should work on railway system and waterways to improve other transportation systems. Even our roads which we use very often are not safe as most of them are in pitiable state of disrepair, which ought not to be the case".
The senator expressed dissatisfaction with what he described as the act of toying with human lives in the name of business by airline operators, adding that the Dana Airline crash could have been averted if the relevant bodies had discharged their duties seriously.
Vanguard Nigeria