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The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) yesterday denied that flight activities were disrupted at some airports prior to Saturday which affected the distribution of election materials across some states, saying contrary to claims by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), NAMA never witnessed the disruption of flight, shut the airspace or restricted air movement before, during and after the rescheduled presidential and National Assembly elections.
In the wake of the one-week postponement of the February 16 elections to February 23, INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu blamed logistic challenges and bad weather for the poor distribution of election materials in some states. The INEC chairman had alleged that bad weather at some airports prevented airplanes that were conveying election materials from making safe landing, hence, some had to divert to alternative aerodromes.
“Three days ago, we were unable to deliver materials to some locations due to bad weather. We therefore had to rely on slow-moving long haulage vehicles to locations that can be serviced by air in spite of the fact that we created five zonal airport hubs Abuja (North Central), Port Harcourt (South South and South East). Kano (North West), Maiduguri and Yola (North East) and Lagos (South West) to facilitate the delivery of electoral logistics. No doubt, preparations for the 2019 general elections have been extremely tasking for the commission. It is therefore not unexpected that such a tremendous national mobilization of men and materials will encounter operational challenges and we have had our own fair share of such challenges,” Yakubu stated.
But the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has categorically denied that bad weather played any role in the postponement, accusing INEC of lying. “INEC should say something else as weather was good for flight operations on eve of elections; similarly all airports were directed to open 24 hours during the election period,” read a tweet from the Minister’s twitter handle.
Similarly, the General Manager, Public Affairs Department of NAMA, Khalid Emele, said there were no disruptions in the provision of air traffic services on Thursday and Friday when the distributions of polls materials were claimed to have been made.
Emele said, NAMA, in line with the directive of the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, “had earlier ensured a 24-hour operation at all Nigerian airports on Friday 15th February 2019 to facilitate the transportation of INEC materials nationwide.” He added that, quite unlike roads and land borders that are often closed on election days, air movement and airlines services continue uninterrupted for all agencies and passengers that require the services.
Having been caught pants down lying, an INEC spokesperson, Oluwole Osaze-Uzezi, tried to put a bold spin on the situation by insisting that INEC did not lie. “Did we say weather was bad on Saturday or Friday? No, we said days before the elections, and we stand by that,” he noted in a statement.
Meanwhile, many voters and candidates alike in the eastern and northern parts of the country were yesterday stranded as airlines cancelled flights over poor visibility occasioned by an intensive harmattan haze. The passengers who wanted to return to Lagos and Abuja after the postponement of the election did not find the joy of air travel as multiple flights to Asaba, Benin, Uyo, Enugu, Calabar, among others, were cancelled .
Huhuonline.com found a lot of the stranded air passengers resorted to travel by road after hours of waiting at the airports. Air Peace, for instance, cancelled eight flights into Asaba and Benin airports. The airlines spokesperson, Chris Iwarah, said the harmattan haze was intense with attendant poor visibility for aircraft operations. He explained that instead of visibility range of at least 5000ft to touchdown, Benin had 2000 and Asaba 1000, “which is very far from what we need to operate.”
