OCTOBER 15, 2020

Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), has demanded for justice for a Nigerian who was burnt to death on Oct. 7 in Tripoli, Libya.

Dabiri-Erewa made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday, after meeting with the Libyan Ambassador to Nigeria, Ayad Attayary, in Abuja. 

The NiDCOM Chief stressed: “all we want is justice to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book”. Responding, the Libyan envoy gave assurances of an open and transparent Libyan legal system where justice is served on the three alleged killers. 

The Libyan authorities have announced the arrest of three Libyans who are suspected to have killed the Nigerian migrant worker by setting him on fire. The act has been condemned by the International Organisation for Migration, the United Nations and the Libyan Interior Ministry. 

Also, the United Nations has also described the killing of the Nigerian man as another senseless crime against migrants in the Country. However, the full identity of the Nigerian man has not been made known as investigations and interrogations of the suspected attackers who are in custody is still on. 

The Libyan Country Chief for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN migration agency, Federico Soda, said that those responsible for the crime must be held accountable.

Early reports revealed that the thee Libyans on Tuesday stormed a factory where African migrants are working, held the victim, and poured petrol on him and set him on fire with no clear motive for the shocking crime.

According to the IOM, there are about half a million migrants in Libya, with some of them having worked in the oil-producing country before it descended into chaos and warfare. The IOM and the United Nations High Commission for Refugee (UNHCR), have both repeatedly said that Libya should not be classified as being safe for migrants. 

(NAN)

OCTOBER 15, 2020

Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), has demanded for justice for a Nigerian who was burnt to death on Oct. 7 in Tripoli, Libya.

Dabiri-Erewa made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday, after meeting with the Libyan Ambassador to Nigeria, Ayad Attayary, in Abuja. 

The NiDCOM Chief stressed: “all we want is justice to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book”. Responding, the Libyan envoy gave assurances of an open and transparent Libyan legal system where justice is served on the three alleged killers. 

The Libyan authorities have announced the arrest of three Libyans who are suspected to have killed the Nigerian migrant worker by setting him on fire. The act has been condemned by the International Organisation for Migration, the United Nations and the Libyan Interior Ministry. 

Also, the United Nations has also described the killing of the Nigerian man as another senseless crime against migrants in the Country. However, the full identity of the Nigerian man has not been made known as investigations and interrogations of the suspected attackers who are in custody is still on. 

The Libyan Country Chief for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN migration agency, Federico Soda, said that those responsible for the crime must be held accountable.

Early reports revealed that the thee Libyans on Tuesday stormed a factory where African migrants are working, held the victim, and poured petrol on him and set him on fire with no clear motive for the shocking crime.

According to the IOM, there are about half a million migrants in Libya, with some of them having worked in the oil-producing country before it descended into chaos and warfare. The IOM and the United Nations High Commission for Refugee (UNHCR), have both repeatedly said that Libya should not be classified as being safe for migrants. 

(NAN)

OCTOBER 15, 2020

…. shut out Aviation Minister 

By Lawani Mikairu

 The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN , workers Thursday embarked on 1 day warning strike to press home their demands for payment of outstanding balance of salaries and allowances. This is just as the workers unions locked the entrance gates to the headquarters of FAAN to prevent the Aviation Minister, Senator Hadi Sirika from holding a scheduled town hall meeting with the authority’s workers. 

The Minister was scheduled  to hold a town hall meeting with the unions and members of staff Thursday, at noon to discuss the workers demands.Canopies and decorations were set up, in preparation for the meeting. 

But outside the venue, gates were padlocked and blocked with vehicles by the workers and the union leaders, with solidarity songs blaring from loud speakers. On Wednesday evening, National Union of Air Transport Employees NUATE, Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, ATSSSAN and the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals, ANAP issued a notice to embark on the one day warning strike after the seven days ultimatum earlier issued to FAAN Management to meet the workers demands elapsed. 

The workers demands include ” immediate payment of outstanding allowances, leave allowances, remittance of contributory pensions, cooperative deductions, gratuity of retired staff and death benefits”. Others are ” immediate release of aviation intervention funds, immediate implementation of the national minimum wage and immediate remittance 105.3 billion actuarial valuation as 2016 to PFA’s, immediate reparation of 2020 actuarial valuation”. 

The action of the FAAN workers has crippled activities of other aviation agencies that have offices within the FAAN headquarters complex. The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency , NAMA and the Nigerian Quarantine services staff have not been able to gain entry to their offices as at the time of filing this report.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/20...

OCTOBER 15, 2020

A total of nine suspects have been detained in operations, according to Demiroren.

Turkish customs enforcement teams seized 420 kilogrammes of drugs valued at $3 million at Turkey’s biggest Istanbul Airport, local media reported on Thursday.

During a series of operations, the units seized a Khat-type drug in six bags which belonged to two travellers.

These bags were detected inside a vehicle at the parking zone of the airport, the Demiroren news agency said.

The police also found a remarkable amount of Khat inside a package declared as a textile item coming from Nigeria to be sent to the United States via Istanbul.

At a separate operation, the police caught six kilogrammes of cocaine inside a suitcase of a passenger, who was checked by an x-ray device and narcotic detector dog.

A total of nine suspects have been detained in operations, according to Demiroren.

(Xinhua/NAN)

OCTOBER 15, 2020

BY  Leslie Josephs

KEY POINTS

• United posted a $1.8 billion net loss for the third quarter.
• United’s CEO expects travel demand to stay below normal levels until there’s a widely available vaccine.
• The company is focused on cutting costs to weather the crisis.

A United Airlines plane seen at the gate at Chicago OHare International airport (ORD)on October 5, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. Daniel Slim | AFP | Getty Images

United Airlines’ CEO Scott Kirby on Thursday said he expects air travel demand to remain lower than normal until there’s a widely available coronavirus vaccine, but the worst appears to be over.

United shares were down about 4% in morning trading.

“We think we’ve turned the corner and can see it, Kirby told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

A recovery is still “a long way off,” Kirby said, adding that demand “is not going to get anywhere close to normal until there’s a widely available vaccine.” He estimates that will be at the end of 2021.

The pandemic spoiled what is normally the peak summer travel season for U.S. airlines. After the market closed on Wednesday, Chicago-based carrier reported it lost $1.8 billion in the third quarter. Delta Air Lines earlier this week reported a $5.4 billion net loss in the quarter.

Air travel has ticked higher in the last few months and Kirby noted recent improvements. But it is still just a fraction of normal levels. In the third quarter alone, the Transportation Security Administration screened 64 million people at U.S. airports down from 220 million a year ago, a 71% decline.

United and other carriers have spent the pandemic raising cash to weather the crisis and slashing costs, parking hundreds of planes and cutting routes. The carrier had $19.4 billion in liquidity at the end of September. It has reduced its cash burn to $25 million a day, including debt and severance payments, from an average of $40 million a day in the previous quarter.

United has been more conservative in its outlook and strategy, operating less capacity compared with last year, than some of its rivals like American and Southwest.

Kirby said the carrier will become cash-flow positive “at some point next year.” Delta on Tuesday said it was pushing back its target to eliminate cash burn in early 2021, later than its previous target of the end of this year.

Chicago-based United began furloughing some 13,000 workers at the start of the month after the terms of a $25 billion federal payroll support package for airlines that prohibited job cuts expired.

OCTOBER 15, 2020

Travellers returning to the UK from Italy from 04:00 BST on Sunday must self-isolate for two weeks, No 10 has said.

Vatican City state and San Marino have been cut from the travel corridor list.

Italy, which is visited by large numbers of UK residents, was one of the last major countries in Europe on the safe list.

Travellers from the Greek island of Crete will no longer need to quarantine.

Italy recorded its highest daily tally of coronavirus cases on Wednesday, with 7,332 people testing positive.

It brings the country's seven-day rate of cases per 100,000 people to 64.

A rate of 20 cases per 100,000 is the threshold above which the government considers imposing quarantine conditions.

Last week, no countries were added to the quarantine list, amid a spike in UK cases.

Poland, Turkey and the Caribbean islands of Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba were among the most recent places added to the quarantine list.

In Italy, it is mandatory to wear face coverings in indoor spaces, including shops, offices, public transport and in bars and restaurants when not seated at a table, though private homes are exempt.

Masks must also be worn in busy outdoor spaces. The country recently announced compulsory testing for anyone arriving from the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and the Czech Republic.

Italians were subject to some of the strictest lockdown measures in the world when the country became the first in Europe to be overwhelmed by the coronavirus earlier in the year.

When the quarantine is applied to a destination, there is an immediate impact on bookings.

Only non-quarantine destinations are "in demand", according to one airline insider.

The flip side is also true.

Last week, the UK government took the Greek island of Zakynthos off its quarantine list.

Tui scheduled a flight soon after and it sold out in days.

That said, passenger numbers overall are massively suppressed due to the resurgence of the virus and the tightening of travel restrictions.

No airline is expecting a surge in bookings for this half-term.

The government has promised that passengers will, by next month, be able to pay for privately-funded Covid tests to reduce the quarantine period by a week.

Ministers are also considering allowing passengers to test before they travel into the UK and that might mean that some people arriving from at risk countries don't have to quarantine at all.

Winters are always tough for airlines. This one looks incredibly bleak and the prospect of testing to reduce the impact of quarantine is only a small glimmer of light.

Passengers arriving in the UK from at-risk countries could avoid having to quarantine under a number of options being considered by the government. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told a travel conference the plan could involve private Covid testing or a period of self-isolation before departure.

The other option being considered by the government is a system whereby passengers would only have to self-isolate for about a week, instead of two weeks, if they were tested after that period and tested negative.

OCTOBER 15, 2020

Hundreds of Nigerian traders massed up at the premises of the Nigerian High Commission in protest of what they call inhumane treatment meted out to them by the Ghanaian government.

According to the traders, some of whose shops have been closed since December 2019, they are dying of hunger and want to be evacuated to Nigeria if Ghanaian authorities fail to open their shops.

Foreign traders in Ghana’s retail space have, for some time now, been at loggerheads with their local counterparts – especially the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) – over the legitimacy of their activity.

JoyNews/AdomNews Â· Nigerian traders picket High Commission in Ghana over closure of shops

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) law that bars foreigners from retail trade in the country.

Section 27(1) of GIPC Act 865 highlights activities that foreign investors are not permitted to invest or participate in, including the sale of goods or provision of services in a market, petty trading, hawking or selling of goods in a stall at any place.

Against this backdrop, local authorities have, on multiple occasions, moved in to shut down operations of businesses which they believed were flouting this directive.

But President of the Nigeria Union of Traders Association (NUTAG), Chukwuemeka Nnaji is calling on the High Commission to come to their aid.

“Our shops have been closed for over 10 months now in the Circle area. We have done everything to be able to sustain our families. We can’t pay our children’s school fees and our rents are expiring,” one of the protesters said.

We are here to plead with the High Commissioner to make Ghana’s government reopen our shops. If that is not possible

Acting High Commissioner, Esther Arewa subsequently received their petition and pledged to do his best in getting their concerns addressed.

“When I got the news that you people are coming, i had to also make a call fast. The information i got was that its up there at the Presidency. So we are hoping that very soon, your situation will be addressed.”

He assured that the Commission will liaise with the Nigerian government and expressed commitment towards helping resolve the matter.

“Its a government-to-government dialogue and I believe that very soon, by the grace of God, we will get to the end of this matter and we all be at peace on Jesus name,” she added.

OCTOBER 15, 2020

BY  Emmanuel Egobiambu  

 

Nigeria has been barred from the US visa lottery application for 2022, a document obtained from the US Government website showed. 

In a 19-page document published on the website, Nigeria is the only African country barred from the visa lottery.

“For DV-2022, persons born in the following countries are not eligible to apply, because more than, 50,000 natives of these countries immigrated to the United States in the previous five years: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (including Hong Kong SAR), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam,” the document read. “Persons born in Macau SAR and Taiwan are eligible.”

Although natives of other African countries are allowed to apply, the document explained that “persons born in the areas administered prior to June 1967 by Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt are chargeable, respectively, to Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt,” it said.

“Persons born in the Gaza Strip are chargeable to Egypt; persons born in the West Bank are chargeable to Jordan; persons born in the Golan Heights are chargeable to Syria.”

In the document captioned â€œInstructions for the 2022 diversity immigrant visa program (dv-2022),” applicants must meet certain guidelines to be eligible for the visa lottery.

“The Department of State determines selectees through a randomized computer drawing,” the statement added.

“The Department of State distributes diversity visas among six geographic regions, and no single country may receive more than seven per cent of the available DVs in any one year.”

OCTOBER 16, 2020

Joseph Olaoluwa

Aviation unions on Thursday embarked on a warning strike after it failed to reach a resolution with the management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria over a proposed strike action.

The aviation unions consisting of the National Union of Air Transport Employees, Air Transport Services Senior Association of Nigeria and the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals had on October 7 threatened to go on strike in seven days over increasing delays and staggering of salary payment.

They carried out their threat by blocking the entrance to the headquarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria by 6am, ahead of a town hall meeting called by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, to discuss the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic on the agency.

An advance party comprising the Managing Director of FAAN, Capt. Rabiu Yadudu, and Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Captain Musa Nuhu, and other directors were not allowed into the venue of the town hall meeting inside the Freedom Square.

It was also learnt that the Minister of Aviation who had intended to address the staff directly had earlier landed and proceeded to Caverton Helicopters where he inspected facilities but did not proceed to the Freedom Square.

Speaking on behalf of other unions, the General Secretary, NUATE, Ocheme Aba, lamented that workers had been denied remuneration for months.

He said, “The workers of FAAN have been denied their full remunerations for several months. They have been paying their salaries in a haphazard manner and the deductions to cooperatives which many of the workers invest in has not been remitted for years.

“It is on record that some staff of the authority contribute about 80 per cent of their salary to the cooperative. When you pay the salary without remitting to the particular cooperative they are associated with, it means such people have earned only 20 per cent of their salary because the other means by which they have to complement their activities through the cooperatives is denied. For a number of months, we have been battling this situation to no avail.

“Last month, they paid the junior staff. They paid the senior staff two weeks later and they paid only 50 per cent. In this period, when you give someone salary under that atmosphere, it is like not giving any salary at all. At this moment, it is on record that it is only the workers of FAAN that are not earning salaries normally which is very unfortunate.”

Aba also noted that the concession policy of the Federal Government would shortchange Nigeria and Nigerians.

He said, “The workers have said vehemently that it is over their dead body that this concession will see the light of day.

“We have tried to explain to them why this particular model of concession that the minister is trying to apply will shortchange Nigerians and Nigeria. We have explained particularly that these four airports are already concessioned airports. They are concessioned to China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation who are building the terminals.

“The CCECC and FAAN already have an arrangement of sharing the proceeds from the terminals. If you now concession these terminals to another individual, who will pay the 60 per cent of the proceeds on these terminals- this means you are leaving FAAN with 40 per cent from which they will have to pay for the loan, return 25 per cent to the Federal Government based on the Fiscal Responsibility Act and they also have to maintain the other 18 airports.

OCTOBER 16, 2020

BY Chinedu Eze 

Airline operators have confirmed that there has been progressive increase in passenger traffic, but at slow pace. According to them, by end of September, passenger traffic was still less than 50 per cent of the pre-COVID-19 era.

Industry observers said this is because the country still suffers from economic lethargy, adding that businesses have not really picked up due to the effect of coronavirus and weak macro-economic environment.

With these realities, there is no strong hope that the airlines would be able to recover the losses they incurred during the lockdown, when many of them did not operate for over three months and even those that operated maintained skeletal services that did not bring in significant revenue.

This was buttressed by the Chief Accountable Manager of Dana Air, Obi Mbanuzuo, who explained recently that domestic airlines are not likely going to recover these losses in one year.

“I don’t think airlines can recover the losses they incurred in a year because it wasn’t just the fact that we were shut down, airlines still had to pay for several things. “Some of the airplanes are leased and we had to pay for them, even the airplanes that were not being flown had to be looked after on a schedule. Whether we fly or not, the engineers do some checks daily. Some engineers have to go in there, start up the engines, check major parts and fix what needed to be fixed. So, there was still money being spent even though we were not flying,” he said.

Mbanuzuo said even now, due to low passenger traffic, the airlines are still incurring cost and not making profits and expressed the fear being entertained in the industry that some airlines would go under.

“Now that we are flying it is even worse because we are not making profit, but we are paying for fuel, spare parts, landing charges and several other charges. So, the palliative we expected was to get us through.

“What I see is that some airlines may go down. It is not something we wish for but it will happen if these airlines don’t get support. Now we are flying, we are paying operational costs of flying these airplanes.

“We are just trying our best to conserve cash and keep jobs. Without the airlines, the airports will be shut down; the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) won’t do anything. The aviation industry contributes a big chunk to the economy, to development and travel and tourism amongst others.

“We just have to get urgent support or else thousands of people may lose their jobs,” the Chief Accountable Manager of Dana Air said. Some industry stakeholders have posited that for the domestic airlines to survive, they should fix fares that would leave them with profit, but there is the dilemma that if the fares are too high, majority of the Nigerian travellers would not be able to afford it, which means less passenger patronage and flying with low factor, except under charter, is unprofitable.

Obi, explained why Dana Air has not significantly increased fares since it resumed operation after the lockdown. “When we wanted to start flight operations, we sat down and looked at the dynamics and we knew that fares were going to go up, especially as the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN) said they would increase Passenger Service Charge (PSC).

“So we were thinking whether to absorb these internally or pass it to the passengers. We knew that somehow fares would go up. However, we are in a competitive market and some have decided that they can survive at a lower price, which drives the market down. So, we are trying to be intelligent at what we are doing.

“We are trying to increase our average fares as we have a department that is focused on that. If you buy your tickets, you can still get some cheap prices but we have on an average increased the fares.”

He added: “For instance on a flight of 100 passengers, 50 people pay N20, 000 each and the other 50 people pay N22, 000 each; the average fare is N21, 000. So, we manage to get something extra from the fares. So, we have increased fares slightly, however we are in a market place and we cannot ignore competition.

“I might want to sell tickets for N35, 000, which will make us try to break even but we know the market is price sensitive. At this time, it is not easy for the passengers and it is not easy for the airline.”