TWO aviation sector’s unions, the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), have called on the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCOM) which is holding receivership for Nigeria’s oldest airline, Aero Contractors to rescue the carrier from the brink of bankruptcy.
In a letter to the Managing Director of AMCON, by the two workers’ unions, dated January 4, 2016, signed by Olayinka Abioye for NUATE and Benjamin Okewu for ATSSSAN, titled, “Aero Contractors company Nigeria must not die-save our souls from the orchestrated plot to plunder/kill Aero Contractors”, they stated that as a veritable watchdogs, “We are constrained to cry out to your good office, to rescue the Aero Contractors from the brink of bankruptcy consciously bene manipulated by some powerful cabal of the company.”
They vowed to give a blow by blow account of what they termed the insidious crimes being perpetrated in the company with graphic details and photocopy of evidences to establish their claims where necessary.
The duo of Abioye and Okewu pleaded with AMCON MD to use his good office to intervene or investigate these matters urgently as they may be compelled to draw the attention of the Federal Government and other international partners on the avalanche of 2questional deals being daily perpetrated by the Board and their collaborators in Aero management.”
Aero is Nigeria’s oldest airline set up in 1959 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Schreiner Airways B.V of the Netherlands. In 1973, the Oteri holding became the exclusive partner with a 40 per cent stake in CAN and grew into a 60 per cent ownership stake in 1976, anticipating the requirements of the Nigerian Indigenous Decree, Canadian Helicopter Company (CHC) bought over Schreiner interest in Africa and became the major shareholder and managing partner for Aero. The CHC was thereby responsible for the day-to-day management of the company.
ATSSSAN in the letter said CHC was took over the company when Aero had old propeller airplanes and few helicopters but came in with 25 helicopters, seven Dash 8 and four Boeing 737 aircraft, describing it as the peak of the airline’s operations with multiple contracts running hitch free because the company had enough spare parts in its stores worth several millions of Naira.
Alleging underhand dealings that has made the carrier a shadow of its former self, the union Oceanic Capital used Aero’s name to take a loan from defunct Oceanic Bank and transferred same to Oceanic Capital which went on to purchase some planes and leased them back to Aero through Oceanic Leasing Company.
According to the group, “This can be confirmed on the tag printed on the plane clearly stating Oceanic Capital as the owner of the plane. It was this loan that almost killed Aero not CHC as been speculated.”
“This loan was allegedly used to purchase seven B737-500from Arizona at an average cost of s$12million each, but from the website of the firm from where the aircraft were purchased, they were going for about $4 million each. From records, a total of seven airplanes were purchased, but only six were received by Aero from Oceanic Capital on lease. Aero was paying a lease rate to Oceanic Capital monthly which almost wrecked the company and made CHC to withdraw as technical partner and took away all their equipment.”
The group further disclosed that when Oceanic was taken over by ECOBANK because of the massive fraud they were involved in, all document “relating to the deal were destroyed and the debt transferred to Aero”, adding that the new that Ecobank, the new investors were not willing to accommodate the debts of Aero because they were to controversial and toxic.
In order to keep the airline going, they stated that AMCON took over the loans of Aero from Ecobank at an undisclosed discounted rate and made a decision to invest in the airline to turn its fortune around.
The union in a document made available to reporters alleged N226 million was paid in the name of Austen Peters and Co and the money transferred to Alpine Gates Company for alleged negotiated settlement fee to AMCON as consultancy fee.
“On further investigation, it was discovered that this money was not just being siphoned from Aero in the name of consultancy fees and passed back to beneficiaries of AMCON. $250, 000 00 was paid twice in favour of Bayo- Negotiation Finalisation of restructuring of AMCON and was also reflected on our invoices as general vendor for consultancy fee. These monies were taken away by AMCON staff even while the company was undergoing serious cash crunch.”
They equally faulted the claim by AMCON to have invested N10 billion in Aero since taking over sometime in 2011, but noted that these monies have always found their ways back to the pockets of “private individuals who go abroad to negotiate aircraft lease without any technical experience even most times over bloated lease rates which is a burden on the company.”
They equally alleged that $1million was paid to Wall and Ace as legal fee to advice management on industrial dispute which should ordinarily have settled by its Human department.
“Most of these monies were paid in dollars as against the CBN Act that prohibits indigenous transactions to be made in dollars. Recently, $9 million was transferred to a company Embraer for the purchase of aircraft , only for the staff to be told after a few months that the deal had been called off by AMCON and the money trapped with Embraer, the Canadian plane maker. We have no idea how such monies could just be lost and yet all still count as Aero’s indebtedness to AMCON.”
“A lot of proxy companies were established/created to serve the sole purpose of milking the company dry. One of such is Skybourne Logistic, created to take over all the employees of Aero and manage them at a cost of extra 25 per cent but this was resisted by the unions which led to the dismissal of all staff and closing down of the company in March 2013. But the Nigerian Senate and the industrial court upturned the decision.”
Aside that, Skybourne Logistics was also alleged to also collecting N980 per boarding pass which they said should ordinarily cost less than N25 a piece, amounting to N60 million monthly until the unions fought again for the deal to be cancelled as it was eventually reduced to N250 and finally to N130.
Equally worrisome was allegation that another ‘proxy’ contract involving Greater Washington Logistics which ATSSSAN said was collecting 70 per cent of the airline’s cargo and ancillary revenues from excess luggage and giving Aero 30 per cent.
This they said was stopped after the unions exposed and fought for it to be reviewed as Aero now keeps 70 per cent, GWL kept 30 per cent.