How overzealous staff sparked row with NCAA DG – Azman Air mgt

 
The management of Nigeria’s domestic carrier, Azman Air Services has described how an overzealous staff sparked a row between the company and the Director General (DG) of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Captain Musa Nuhu over the suspension of the airline in March, 2021. 


It said the purported letter which allegedly defamed the person of Captain Musa Nuhu was written by a staff without authorisation from the management neither was there a consultation nor approval of the same. 


Azman Air Accountable Manager, Mr. Muhammad Hadi Abdulmunaf, said an in-house investigation on the matter revealed that ‘an overzealous staff’ wrote the letter. 
The airline said it tendered an unreserved apology to the Director General of the NCAA, Capt Nuhu and Aviation Minister, Senator Hadi Sirika, over the publication of a letter defaming the person of the DG. 


The airline statement was titled: “Our unreserved apologies to the person of the Director General of the NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu”, and signed by its accountable manager, Muhammad Hadi Abdulmunaf. 


“We wish to unreservedly tender our apologies to both the person of Capt. Musa Nuhu and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority. We state categorically that there wasn’t and, there is still, no iota of truth in the allegations which are capable of damaging the reputations of the DG and the NCAA. We equally extend our apologies to the Honourable Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, for any embarrassments our actions may have caused him and the government.


“We regret every inconvenience caused to the DG, NCAA, the Minister of Aviation and the aviation industry in Nigeria as a result of our publication of that falsehood”, the airline said.
Explaining further, Abdulmunaf  said: “On March 21, 2021, we issued a press statement expressing our surprise and shock at a publication credited to us in which the integrity and reputation of the Director General of the NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, came under attack as a result of the decision taken by the regulator to suspend our operations based on safety considerations.
“In the said press release, we denied management’s knowledge and approval for such careless and unfortunate allegations made against the person of the DG but promised to conduct internal investigations as to the source/s of the allegations. We have now conducted such in-house investigations which led to accusations and counter accusations amongst our staff as to who did it. We have established that, at least, it came from one of them hence our disappointment with ourselves.
“It is true that we were contacted, just as other airlines in the country, to advertise our services in the ICAO magazine for which payment was to be made. We inadvertently failed to make this payment which however had nothing to do with the personal accounts of the DG but the publishers of the magazine.


“At the suspension of our services by the NCAA, an overzealous staff, who erroneously thought that the suspension was dictated by our failure to pay for the advert, without the knowledge and consent of management of Azman, authored the unfortunate allegations against the DG.


“We wish to unreservedly tender our apologies to both the person of Capt. Musa Nuhu and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority. We state categorically that there wasn’t and, there is still, no iota of truth in the allegations which are capable of damaging the reputations of the DG and the NCAA. We equally extend our apologies to the Honourable Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, for any embarrassment our actions may have caused him and the government.
“While we seek forgiveness for our actions, we promise to tighten our communication controls to avoid future embarrassing situations as this one caused by us.”

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