The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has said that it intended to respond to the allegation of aircraft tampering levelled against it by the owner of TopBrass, Mr. Roland Iyayi, in court.
The Director-General of NCAA, Capt. Muhtar Usman who made this known on Thursday in his office at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, during an interview, told aviation journalists that. he was surprised at the tampering allegation against it by Iyayi,
Usman said that since the case was in the court of law, he would rather keep silent and wait till the case go through the processes.
However, he stated that Nigeria as a signatory to the Cape Town Convention, should adhere strictly to the rules and regulations it signed.
He said: “First of all, I am not in the know of any tampering of any aircraft because the company did not put its aircraft under the watch of NCAA and I believe that as a responsible organisaiton, we should not be discussing a case that is before the court.
“ I am surprised that TopBrass is being mentioned everywhere. We will respect the court. We will wait until the outcome of the judgment before we will make any pronouncement. However, Nigeria is a signatory to the Cape Town Convention, which helps especially African countries to get access to lease of aircraft.
“In the process, there are procedures, whoever that is leasing, signs an adherence, which allows the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to deregister aircraft when there are defaults.
“I will be very surprise that today NCAA has been dragged to court severally by this person who signed voluntarily and it is the same person that is making the allegation. So, we will meet in court”.
