The aviation unions in Nigeria have threatened to mobilise aviation community against the government of Rivers State if it failed to immediately release the Caverton pilots.
In a statement jointly issued by the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP), they demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the pilots and oil and gas workers who are presently under unlawful remand by the Rivers state government.
The unions also demanded an unqualified public apology to the personnel and the companies involved, which include Caverton Helicopters and Shell Petroleum, as well as adequate recompense for the same persons and companies for personal damages and losses in revenue.
The unions stressed that failure to meet these demands would incur their wrath and they shall have no choice than to mobilise aviation community against the state.
“It beats our imagination how Governor Wike, a lawyer, would so flagrantly discountenance the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which vests legislation and regulation of aviation matters exclusively on Federal Government, and how he could so vexatiously assume the power to invade a military base, accost aviation personnel who were on lawful national assignment and purportedly prosecute and remand innocent citizens and legal foreign workers, contrary to everything reasonable and lawful, and in such bizarre manner.
“Beyond the issue of legality, it is altruistic that any restrictions on movements due to emergency situations anywhere in the world normally precludes essential services providers, as the current situation of coronavirus shows worldwide. In Nigeria, nothing is more essential than oil and gas services,” the unions stated.
The unions argued that to impede production of oil and gas was to dangerously touch the very nerve centre of Nigeria’s national economy and in extension affect electric supply in the country.
The unions further noted that the actions of Rivers state government point to a personal unwholesome agenda; a ventilation of anger against undeclared adversaries, adding that they find it most unbecoming for a high ranking government official of the status of a governor of a state to be precipitating constitutional crisis, sabotaging national interest, harassing innocent citizens and workers, and creating a major distraction at a time such as this when forging synergies and aligning forces are direly required to defeat the common enemy of coronavirus.
On Tuesday, two of Carverton Helicopter Pilots Samuel Urgoji and Samuel Buhari were arrested by Rivers State Government Task Force on Covid 19 for flying people into Rivers State.
They were arraigned with charge no PMC/532C/2020 on four count charge of disobedience to order of Rivers state government and were remanded in prison till 19 May 2020 when their trial would commence.
