Nigeria Not Ready For ICAO Security Audit–NCAA

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), over the weekend, said the country is not ready for the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), security audit in November.

Speaking to journalists, the director general of the NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, said six weeks after safety audit is inadequate for Nigeria to prepare for ICAO’s security audit after undergoing safety audit in August.

He, however, called for a postponement saying no country in the world can carry out two audits in six weeks.

“After the safety audit that ends in September, ICAO is telling us that we have to start the security audit in November, which is just six weeks in between. I think that is too much and there is no country that faces that. We just wrote to ICAO to give us more time. Six weeks is inadequate. Though, there are some of the issues between safety and security audits that overlap. There is a lot to do,” the NCAA boss stated

Moreover, the NCAA said it will check the activities of unapproved aviation fuel marketers involved in the supply of contaminated Jet-A1 to unsuspecting airlines.

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He also disclosed that NCAA has contacted the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and no foreign airlines have complained about contaminated fuel to the association.

“The issue of fuel contamination is not specific and we have contacted IATA, and they said no international airlines have reported fuel contamination and on the domestic side the same, too. This is a kind of a standalone case and it is also an alarming one and we have to look at the entire process of supply value chains, starting from outside the sector.

“We are not resting on our oars and we have to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. We have set up a committee comprising of NCAA, FAAN, NSIB and others to make their report to us. Like I said earlier, it is the responsibility of the operators and the pilots and engineers to make sure that contaminated fuel doesn’t get to the system.”

Nuhu further stated that in the course of investigation, the authority was discovered that some unapproved aviation fuel marketers found their ways into the airports, thereby, supplying the commodity to unsuspecting airlines.

The director-general said it was discovered during a meeting with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), that some fuel suppliers were operating at Nigerian airports illegally.

He said NCAA was furnished with a list of approved aviation fuel companies by the DPR but discovered that some suppliers currently operating at the airports were not on the list.

He added that NCAA would also inform the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, about the development with a view to stop the illegal operators.

“Investigation is ongoing, we are doing this in collaboration with the DPR and we have got the list of all companies approved by the DPR. We found out that some were not approved, we will write FAAN about this to ensure they withdraw their services until they meet all requirements.”

“Any Jet-A1 supplier must be approved because it needs a lot of standards. Although, there was a gap between the DPR and NCAA but that has been closed. The issue of fuel contamination is not acceptable and no International airline has reported fuel.”