#EndSARS: Reps committee on Aviation suspends public hearings indefinitely

TRACKING___The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has suspended its three-day hearing on six Civil Aviation Bills indefinitely, Daily Times reports.

A statement personally signed by the Chairman, Rep. Nnolim Nnaji(PDP-Enugu), said the “the postponement was necessitated by the continued #EndSARS protests which have remained unabated”.

He also cited “the logistics concerns raised by most of the stakeholders expected to attend the public hearing as part of the reasons for the decision to put the programme on hold”.

Nnaji disclosed that he had “been inundated with telephone calls all day by stakeholders claiming that they had been unable to access the Lagos Airport to catch their flights to Abuja.

“We regret the inconveniences this sudden shift might have caused every interested party” .Honourable Nnaji said. The public hearing on the six executive Bills were earlier scheduled to commence on Tuesday October 20 to 22, 2020 at House wing of the National Assembly Complex, Abuja”.

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He, however, said, “a new date will be announced soon”. The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation was supposed to begin a process of amending the Civil Aviation Acts with a three-day public hearing on the six executive bills brought to the National Assembly.

The bills are seeking to amend certain aspects of the Acts establishing the six agencies being superintended by the Ministry of Aviation.

The agencies include – the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, (NAMA), Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, (NCAT) Zaria, Air Accident Investigation Bureau, (AIB) and Nigerian Meteorological Agency, (NIMET).

The Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Nnaji, had said earlier, that aviation as a dynamic industry requires constant review of enabling status to ensure that the country keeps to standard.

“I understand that the last review was done about fourteen years ago (2006) and l can tell you that within this period a lot of changes has happened globally and this must have necessitated the proposed review from the Executive arm,” he said.