Nigeria Air: Arewa group demands Sirika�s arrest

The Concerned Northern Forum has called for the arrest and prosecution of the immediate-past Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, over his alleged complicity in the Nigeria Air fraud.

The call was coming after the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation�s description of Nigeria Air as a fraud. The committee also charged the Federal Government to suspend the airline.

The PUNCH reported that the Managing Director of Nigeria Air, Dayo Olumide, had disclosed that the purported Nigeria Air�s aircraft that landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on May 26, 2023, was a chartered one from Ethiopia Airlines.

Olumide made this known while answering questions from senators on Monday.

The northern group, in a statement on Thursday by its chairman, Ali Muhammad, called for the arrest and prosecution of the ex-aviation minister by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

�The former minister has acted with so much impunity on several occasions as if the law cannot get to him. He had continuously operated as a tyrant minister, refusing to listen to no one, aviation experts, and airline operators of Nigeria who advised against this project.

�This national embarrassment and waste of resources incurred on the country would have been averted if he had listened to advice, yet Sirika went ahead knowing it was a charade, to deceive Nigerians.

�This is an alleged fraud,� very much within the reach of the EFCC and the anti-graft agency should, as a matter of national urgency, immediately arrest and investigate Sirika for allegedly committing financial and other related crimes, as he has been deceiving Nigerians for eight years.��