The Senator representing Rivers East Senatorial District in the National, Thompson Sekibo, has said contrary to a submission on the floor of the senate, domestic airlines do have the capacity to effectively operate locally.
Sekibo had accused Senator Ifeanyi Uba of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) of lying in his motion on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday.
Uba’s motion on the “urgent need to protect Nigeria’s indigenous Airlines”, generated heated debate on the floor with some lawmakers for and against the motion.
Uba said: “Nigeria’s indigenous Airlines have the capacity to cover all domestic routes being operated now by these foreign Airlines.”
However, Senator Thompson said the sponsor of the motion submitted a fallacious assertion to the Senate, insisting that his experiences had been different from what his colleague presented on the floor.
“Mr President, distinguished colleagues, what Senator Ifeanyi Uba stated here is a fallacy and this should not happen in the ninth Senate.
“I come from Rivers State and often time domestic flights scheduled for 10.00am would end up 10.00pm. So, domestic airlines don’t have the capacities to operate locally.”
The Rivers lawmaker maintained that local airlines have never been effective in their local operations, adding that the sponsor of the motion would have got his facts before approaching the chamber.
In protecting the sponsor of the motion as is the norm in the Chamber, the Senate President, Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan urged Thompson Sekibo to just vote against the motion when that time comes, if he so wishes.
