BY INALEGWU SHAIBU
ABUJA—PERMANENT Secretary in the Ministry of Aviation, Mrs. Anne Ene-Itta, yesterday disclosed that the $76 million Bilateral Air Service Agreement, BASA, fund domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, was intact.

Mrs. Ene-Itta, together with the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Mr. Harold Dumeren, who both appeared before the Senator Sylvester Anyanwu-led Senate Committee on Aviation, dismissed claims that the fund had been spent.
Mrs. Ene-Itta told the Committee that the fund was laying fallow with the CBN, pending thorough review of airport facilities, noting that the money will be used in line with laid down laws.

She said:  “Regarding the status of the BASA fund, the money is with the CBN. We have not utilised it yet. We are still in the process of reviewing the airports before we utilise it and we will follow the process of law.”

Mr. Dumeren, in response to questions from the senators on the state of compensation paid to families of victims of the Sosoliso, ADC and Bellview air disasters between 2005 and 2006, told them that the payment of compensation had reached an advance stage.

But in a remorseful tone, he pleaded with the senators to excuse him from declaring the full details of the payments to the families, saying no amount of money could replace the lives of the victims of the three air crashes.

He said: “No amount of money can compensate for the lives lost in Bellview, Sosoliso and ADC air crashes that we experienced in 2005 and 2006. In case of Bellview, we have finished payment of compensation except for few which is due to multiple claims.

“The case of Sosoliso is very messy, but I am happy to tell you that we have had some settlement. We have made remarkable progress, but I cannot make full disclosure of the details here because of its sensitive nature.”