Nigerian military aborts airlift of pilgrims from Maiduguri airport
Borno state Governor, Kashim Shettima
Hours after stopping the 278 passengers from flying out of Maiduguri, the military also stopped a private chartered flight from conveying two federal lawmakers and six others to Abuja.
The intending pilgrims, according to a source at the Maiduguri airport, had earlier undergone thorough security checks and were waiting to board a MaxAir flight that was already on ground when soldiers interrupted the process.
The travel arrangement was at the instance of tour operator, Skynet International Limited, which hired MaxAir for the airlift.
The military men, purportedly acting on “orders from above” insisted that the two aircrafts would have to leave the city’s airport empty.
They insisted that the hundreds of pilgrims travelling to Saudi Arabia must go by road to Kano through the unpredictable Maiduguri-Damaturu-Potiskum road, to fly out of the country.
The soldiers and their leaders, our sources said, refused all entreaties by officials of the Borno State Government, including Governor Kashim Shettima, to let the pilgrims travel out. The government officials pointed out that pilgrims carrying pocket money and moving to Kano by road from Maiduguri could be at risk given past instances of attacks along the Maiduguri-Damaturu-Potiskum road.
The Managing Director of the tour operator company, Grema Terab said his company had written letters to the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria and military authorities that include the Brigade command, the police headquarters and the air force authorities, who all gave it the green light to proceed with the arrangement.
He said the arrangement to lift pilgrims from the Borno state capital to the Muslim holy land was made due to the fact that previous exercises took place in 2011, 2012 and 2013 at the peak of the Boko Haram insurgency in Maiduguri and yet, flights landed and took off to Saudi Arabia without any problem.
A source at the airport quoted the military personnel as saying they would not allowing this year’s Umrah operations in Maiduguri on the orders of the chief of air staff that the airport be immediately closed to commercial aircrafts.
In the same vein, the military also yesterday, barred a serving Senator representing Borno South Senatorial District, Mohammed Ali Ndume, alongside a serving member of House of Representatives, representing Gwoza/Chibok/Damboa Federal Constituency of Borno State from boarding an aircraft chartered by the Borno State government after an 8-seater aircraft arrived Maiduguri with some government officials it conveyed from Abuja.
The military ordered the plane to take-off empty, leaving behind all eight persons, including the two lawmakers scheduled to board the flight to Abuja from Maiduguri.
There was reported tension at the airport as intending pilgrims became restive, expressing their disgust over the aborted trip. The secretary to the state government, Baba Ahmed Jidda, had to visit the airport to address the pilgrims to calm their nerves. The pilgrims later left in numerous buses driving through the night to Kano in order not to miss the flight’s inaugural slot to land in Saudi Arabia.
The Maiduguri airport was reopened some months ago by the Nigerian Air Space Management Agency after it was closed down due to an attack by the Boko Haram sect in which some Air Force jets were destroyed.
The Borno State Government, according to a government source, had on the request of NAMA, intervened with donation of high powered electricity generator along with other facilities to NAMA which were installed in January at the Maiduguri airport.
“Aircrafts have been consistently landing and taking off from the airport since January without any incident recorded. It was therefore a shocker when they callled off those two flights,” the source added.
Contacted by PREMIUM TIMES, the spokesperson to Governor Shettima, Isa Gusau, said, “The Borno State Government views it as a strange development that came at a time the State and Federal establishments needed to enhance their ties for greater cooperation in handling the affairs of Borno state”.
But the military insists the Saudi-bound flight was aborted for security reasons.
“Borno state authorities who arranged the flight were briefed on the reasons that flight could not board passengers in Maiduguri,” the spokesperson for the Defence Headquarters, Chris Olukolade, a major general, said. “We also offered alternative means of conveying the pilgrims elsewhere to board their flights, and we are surprised that the issue we believed was amicably resolved is now being made a media issue.”
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