The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has expressed support for the federal government’s sanction against airlines selling tickets in dollars, noting that such airlines were enemies of Nigeria.
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, had disclosed the government’s position on the issue of airlines selling tickets to its passengers in dollars that any airline found to be involved in such practice would be sanctioned.
ACF’s national chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh, in a statement in Kaduna on Friday, said selling tickets in dollars negated the value of the Naira, “and will throw Nigeria and its economy in a precarious situation.”
“The socio-political umbrella of the Northern states, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has welcomed the stand taken, by the federal government, on the airlines in the country, selling tickets in foreign currencies.”
The ACF chairman appreciated “The stern move on deterring any local or foreign airline that transacts its business, in Nigeria, with foreign currency. This negates the value of the Naira, and will, undoubtedly, throw Nigeria and its economy in a precarious situation.”
He called on the aviation ministry to “as a matter of urgency, spread its tentacles in arresting such menace. No airline wishing any country good should involve itself in sabotaging its economy through dwarfing the value of its currency.”
Chief Ogbeh noted that “even in smaller African nations such callous economic investment was never allowed.”
He called on the CBN, Finance Ministry and indeed the President to take stern measures in ensuring that “whoever arrives Nigeria must convert his/her currency into Naira for whatever business transaction; failure amounts to economic sabotage.”
