The House of Representatives yesterday ordered a through investigation into the circumstances leading to the three-hour delay in the landing of a Bellview aircraft at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja last Saturday.
It has, consequently, mandated its committees on aviation and internal security to investigate the cause of the delay in the flight which reportedly took off from Lagos Airport at about 12 noon and was not allowed to land at the Abuja Airport until about 3.00pm due to what the airport authorities called "VIP movements".
A flight on the said route takes about 50 minutes under normal weather conditions.
In a motion brought by Honourable Leonard Mayor Eze (PDP) and 64 others, the House in plenary was told that such incidents were becoming rampant in the nation's airports even when unnecessary delays in the air were known to have put the lives of crew members and passengers on board the planes in great danger.
Eze recalled that sometime in the recent past, a trainer aircraft was forced to land on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at Ewekoro, Ogun State after being prevented from landing at Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos due to the so called VIP movement.
He said that such delays are known to create panic, frustration and even death among passengers, as the plane could run out of fuel.
Some legislators who contributed to the debate urged the House to enact a law that would ban any stoppage of landing due to VIP movement as this would force Nigerian airports to operate according to internationally acceptable standards as far as the issues was concerned.
Meanwhile, the Movement for the creation of Ijebu State stormed the National Assembly yesterday where they met with Speaker Dimeji Bankole and other key officials of the House of Representatives on the need for the proposed state to be created.
The agitators led by Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona and Chairman of the Movement for the creation of the state, Professor Adebayo Adedeji, said that Ijebu state should be created now because all the 24 provinces that were in existence during the colonial era had become states except Ijebu.
Bankole obsereved that the issue of state creation was the responsibility of the entire parliament but assured the delegation that the House would be guided by fairness in its consideration of all the proposals submitted to it on state creation. He urged the agitators to go back and re strategise as according to him a lot more needed to be done to actualise the dream.
