Nigerians Complain As FG Fines UK Airline Small N1m For Violating Lockdown Order

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, has been criticized by Nigerians for imposing a mere N1m fine on a British private charter company, Flairjet for violating COVID-19 airport directives in Nigeria.

Recall that Sirika on Sunday directed FlairJet to pay the Nigerian government the sum of one million Naira for violating COVID-19 airport directives.

The airline was charged after being found guilty of violating civil aviation regulations IS 1.3.3(a) Table 2(IV) 7(a) and IS 1.3.3 (a) Table 2 (VIII) (4).

However, some Nigerians have taken to Twitter, describing the fine as too small for such a crime. They called for the review of the extant law against such violation.

Here are some comments gathered by DAILY POST from Twitter:

@Magma11 “Hon Sirika, please initiate the review and amendment of the relevant laws. The fine for such a gross violation of our aviation law is damn too meagre. The penalty is not commensurate to this act of misbehavior.”

@Kraft ” Please Sirika, please initiate the review of this obsolete law. This should attract nothing less than 5M Naira.”

@Laar03 “Are you kidding me, that’s just 1000 GBP, what stops them from doing it again? This law needs to be reviewed to work properly as a deterrent control.”

@MallamTafida “Glad the maximum fines were applied. But there is clearly a need to revise the current laws and increase the penalties. I can only imagine what would have happened to a Nigerian airline.”

@Bolsaid “₦500k pere as in for violating a national law, so na the law since 1970 when Naira was almost bigger than Pounds you guys are still using.”

@Fashybou “Can we have the law reviewed so the penalty can be higher.”

@Pilotemi “Just N500k (<$1500) for such violation? They probably researched our law (& penalty) before embarking on such a journey.” @CMgbeadichie “How is this a penalty? This is just a slap on the wrist. But again, the Nigerian govt vs the UK’s is like a rat v Lion. We are puppets. If the situation were to be reversed, I am sure the penalty that would have been slammed on Nigeria could cause the company to fold.” @AkinolaFestus “Very unfortunate! This company will disobey our law and regulations again. Come to think of it, the airline will think it is better to pay the fine and operate the commercial flight and reap cool profit.Some of our laws need review to reflect present realities.” @Diddiepappie “This is disregard to the whole country. N500,000 ain’t it. It should be way more than that. I think Nigeria should review that.”