Aviators have alleged that anonymous petition writers in the agencies and other organisations in the aviation industry have used such self-serving purpose to destroy the integrity and goodwill of individuals and agencies in the sector.
According to them, when things go wrong the labour unions rise to bring it to the fore and campaign for positive change but when some individuals seek for self aggrandizement or hurt the system, they write anonymous petitions to disrupt organisations and damage the image of individuals, while the writers are not known.
The consequence of this, they said, is that there develops lack of trust among individuals and organisations indicted by such petitions and urged government, security agencies to ignore petitions that are written anonymously, adding that if anybody or an organisation is displeased with actions and policies taken by officials or organisation, the petitioners protesting against such policies should follow the proper channels of complain or write their petitions with their identity.
Former Managing Director of Nigerian Aviation Handling Company PLC (nahco aviance) and currently the CEO of Aviaport Services, Bates Sarki Sule, told THISDAY that petition writing, especially in the aviation industry is usually aimed to injure reputation of individuals and organisation and written by those with ulterior, selfish motive.
“The petitioners are not mainly unions members or the unions. These petitioners are individuals or groups outside the union who write petition for selfish reasons. Some of the interests could be that, look I was a staff you sacked me; I will petition you. Or I want to take over your seat and then I go and write petitions against you.
But what I have come to observe, because I also was a victim, is that most of these petitions cannot be substantiated. But when these petitions are written, especially to security agencies; they do not take time to find out the facts before inviting the accused. Proper investigation is not carried out and at the end of the day, so much noise is made to the extent that the image, character of the person that is being petitioned against is damaged,” Sule said.
He therefore suggested that if anybody or group of persons that are bold enough to write petitions against anybody in the aviation industry append their names and should not do it anonymously and should be ready to substantiate allegations with relevant documents to back their petitions, adding that the security agencies should carry out their investigations prior to inviting the accused.
“The fourth point is that there should not be celebration of such petition in the media until after full investigation and confirmation. This is because the media will feel they are doing their job by reporting these things but then it has not been fully established. The person has not been prosecuted or even taken to the court of law. In the long run, the person’s character, person and image is damaged. I was a victim of this and I can tell you that all the petitions, over 1000 petitions were frivolous and the petitioner did not substantiate them, but they were done to damage my person.
“If these petitions were true I wouldn’t be sitting here; I would have been in jail and I would have lost my job because I was operating under a private sector arrangement. I even have evidences to show that in one of the petitions, the board took it upon itself to investigate this and it found out the petition was frivolous. The petitioner did not even show up,” he said.
