Safety Concerns: Aviation Minister Summons Regulatory Agency Heads, Threatens Sanctions 

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN, has summoned heads of regulatory agencies under his purview to a meeting over safety concerns in the aviation sector.

The meeting, which will hold this Monday in the Minister’s office, was convened to review incidents that were cause of public concerns and to ensure that appropriate steps were taken to forestall future occurrence and to apply sanctions, where necessary, regarding the past incidents.

Keyamo, who took to his verified X handle (formerly Twitter) on Monday to announce the development, wrote: “Due to safety concerns in the aviation sector expressed by members of the public, I have summoned the heads of the regulatory agencies to my office later today to review the incidents that are the cause of these concerns and to ensure that appropriate steps are taken to forestall future occurrence and to apply sanctions, where necessary, regarding the past incidents.”

He, however, did not specify the “past incidents” to be reviewed.

LEADERSHIP recalls that there were incidents in less than one month in the industry, with the most recent ones being a landing incident involving a private jet conveying the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, at the Samuel Ladoke Akintola Airport in Ibadan, Oyo State; another landing incident involving CallyAir aircraft operated by Aero Contractors at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, and another incident involving ValueJet aircraft skidding off the runway at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, Rivers State, just two weeks ago.

Earlier in September, investigators opened an inquiry after a United Nigeria Airlines Embraer ERJ-145 suffered a runway excursion at Lagos Airport, the second such occurrence involving the carrier in about three months.