By Dennis Agbo

ABAKALIKI— THE Senate has concluded plans to overhaul the aviation industry through  on-going review of the Acts establishing all the parastatals in the Aviation Industry with a view to bringing them up to the standard of international best practices.

Chairman Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Anyim Ude, who made the disclosure in Abakaliki, said the review is to strengthen the operational capacity and efficiency as well as reposition the agencies not only to be financially viable, but to contribute to the economic growth of the country.

Senator Ude revealed that all the Acts setting up the parastatals under the Aviation Industry, including the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria ,FAAN, Nigeria Airspace Management Agency ,NAMA, Nigeria College of Aviation Technology ,NCAT, Zaria, and Nigeria Metrological Agency ,NIMET, have been overtaken by events.

“For instance, there is nothing, no paragraph, no page talking about terrorism in Aviation in Nigerian Law. But you know what terrorism can do when you are in the air. That,  for instance has to have a chapter in this new Aviation Law we are reviewing. We are doing that in collaboration with some experts from UK,” he  said.

Senator Ude noted that his committee since inception had undertaken far reaching measures aimed at sanitizing the Aviation sector, as part of the committee’s oversight functions.

According to him, the committee is in the process of touring the 21 airports and some aerodromes in the country because of alleged  mismanagement of funds, especially the N19.5 billion scandal that ultimately resulted in air crashes which claimed more than 400 lives between 2005 and 2006.