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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Aviation Minister, unions on war-path:� Over statement on SAHCOL, other Airways subsidiariesSOLA ADEKOLAAVIATION unions are on the warpath with the Minister of Aviation, Malam Isa Yuguda, over his declaration last week that the Skypower Aviation Handling Company (SAHCOL) and other subsidiaries of Nigeria Airways are not part of the national carrier. The statement, which sparked controversy in the aviation industry, may set the unions particularly the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) against the minister. The unions, with the support of NUATE, Nigeria Airways branch, are planning for a showdown to prevent the minister from short- changing workers of the ailing national carrier. To make good their threat, the unions held several meetings up to the weekend to make them strategise for the showdown. The unions took a swipe at the minister for trying to misrepresent facts in an attempt to take away the most valuable subsidiary of the troubled national carrier so that the airline would become valueless. The unions were reacting to the minister�s statement in Abuja that SAHCOL never belonged to Airways but to an individual who registered the handling company. He argued that SAHCOL was not registered on behalf of Airways until a few weeks ago when he had to go and re-register the company. The statement is at variance with the well-known fact that it was Airways that gave each of the four subsidiaries under it including SAHCOL N10 million as take-off grant. The minister�s declaration angered the unions which described the statement as an attempt to indict his predecessors. According to the unions, apart from the fact that SAHCOL was duly registered, the handling company�s board chairman is automatically the managing director of Airways. The unions described Yuguda�s statement as a ploy to justify his recent decision to take away the subsidiaries from the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) which was asked to see to the liquidation of the national carrier including its subsidiaries. One of the strategies to be used by the unions may include calling on the last two ministers that served before him to say what they knew about the case.
Monday, July 19, 2004 |
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