Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, says some private aircraft functioning in Nigeria are being made use of for money laundering, drug trafficking and other unlawful operations.
Keyamo made the disclosure at the Ministry of Aviation in Abuja on Thursday, when he initiated a Ministerial Taskforce Committee to checkmate unlawful chartered operations in the nation.
However, the minister didn’t mention the names of the aircrafts, he declared that these criminal operations have caused the sector lose billions of dollars and raised serious security concerns.
The minister further expressed that a few of those engaged in the unlawful activities are those who procured licenses for non-commercial flights operations yet went against the stipulated agreement of the licenses.
Tending to the committee members, Keyamo ordered that they take stock of all non-commercial flights operators, look into all professional permit and checkmate their authenticity likewise recommend disciplinary measures against airlines found wanting.
The eight-man committee was chaired by the Chief Executive Office (CEO) of Aero Contractors, Ado Sanusi, and the committee is expected to report all discoveries to the minister within the next three months.
