News

Aviation unions suspend strike, reopens NCAA offices

Published

7 years ago

May 24, 2019

Eric

The offices of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) were on Friday reopened for operations following the suspension of the two-day strike by aviation unions.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the unions are: Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE).

Others are the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP) and the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE).

The workers began the strike on Wednesday to press for the review of the collapsed organogram which they claimed could lead to redundancy in the agency.

It was learnt that the strike was suspended after the Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, assured the workers that their grievances would be urgently looked into.

The President of ANAP, Mr Kabir Gusau, told NAN that the unions decided to suspend the strike after the meeting with the minister on Wednesday but had to convince the NCAA workers to toe the path of peace.

“Arising from the meeting with the minister on Wednesday night, the unions decided to only suspend the strike for seven days starting from May 22.

“From the three items we presented, which is the organogram issue, condition of service, and inauguration of parastatals boards, we actually saw sincerity of purpose because of the way he behaved with us.

“As of Thursday, he (Sirika) led our unions delegates to the Salaries and Wages Commission, which has been part of the problem we have been having.

“This is because in the history of our nation, there has been no day the minister personally led unions delegation to the commission concerning condition of service,” he said.

Gusau said on the issue of organogram, the minister had also agreed to set up a committee comprising of NCAA management and the unions to look at the mistakes made in the new organogram.

He said the minister gave the committee seven days to complete their jobs within the stipulated time so it could be approved before the expiration of the administration on May 28.

He said the minister also promised the unions that the incoming administration would inaugurate the boards of aviation agencies.

Gusau said NCAA workers were adamant to continue with the strike on Thursday because there was a communication gap between the union’s delegation and the workers.

“By the time we had agreed with the minister to suspend the strike for seven days on Wednesday night, we ought to have returned to Lagos yesterday morning to brief the workers.

“So, it was a mistake because we left the meeting with the minister around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, so the workers were not aware the outcome of our meeting with the minister.

“So, now that we have briefed them, normalcy has been restored and the workers have gone to their offices unlike what happened yesterday.

“The only thing now is that we are now appealing to the Federal Government to abide and go in terms of the agreement within the seven days promised,” he said.

News

El-Rufai’s Son, Bello, Dumps APC, Joins ADC

Published

2 days ago

May 7, 2026

Eric

Bello El-Rufai, the son of former Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

The speaker said Bello El-Rufai joined the ADC alongside two members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Kaduna State — Reps Umar Ajilo and Suleiman Yahaya Richifa.

He also announced the defection of Kamilu Ado, a lawmaker from Kano State, from the ADC to the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).

The Speaker also announced the resignation of Rep. Joshua Obika, representing the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency of the Federal Capital Territory, from the APC to the NDC.

The defected members, however, cited internal crises and uncertainty within their former parties as reasons for their defections.

News

Gunmen Kill Driver, Abduct Passengers on Benin-Ore Expressway

Published

3 weeks ago

April 20, 2026

Eric

Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have attacked a commercial bus operated by GUO Transport along the Benn-Ore expressway, killing the driver and abducting several passengers in what underscores Nigeria’s deepening insecurity on major highways.

Reports indicate that the assailants ambushed the South East-bound vehicle, opened fire on the driver, who died at the scene, and subsequently whisked away passengers to an unknown destination.

The incident is believed to have occurred along a notorious stretch of the highway linking the South-West to the South-South, long plagued by banditry and abductions.

While official confirmation from security agencies is expected, local sources and a circulating video showed that passengers might have forcefully been taken into nearby forests, a tactic commonly employed by kidnapping syndicates operating along the corridor. Similar attacks in the past have involved mass abductions, with victims later released after ransom payments.

News

Police Retirees Block Aso Rock Gate, Demand Action on Pension Scheme

Published

3 weeks ago

April 20, 2026

Eric

Some retirees of the Nigeria Police Force under the aegis of the Police Retired Officers Forum of Nigeria (PROF) have staged a protest at the Presidential Villa in Abuja demanding President Bola Tinubu sign the Police Exit Bill passed by the National Assembly in December 2025.

The bill seeks to withdraw the Nigeria Police Force from the Contributory Pension Scheme.

The protesters, under the scorching sun, walked from the Three Arms Zone in Abuja through the street in front of the Police Headquarters.

They carried placards with various inscriptions, in addition to the Nigerian flag and the flag of the Nigeria Police Force.

Led by its National Coordinator, CSP Raphael Irowainu, the protesters described the retention of the NPF in the Contributory Pension Scheme as fraudulent and illegal.

They also said the CPS is inhumane and obnoxious.

According to them, the protest seeks to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to give assent to the Police Exit Bill passed by the National Assembly on 4th December 2025 and transmitted to the President on 16th March 2026.

They said that when signed into law, the Act will totally exempt the police from what they called a “slavery and untimely death-inducing pension scheme.”

The protesters, accompanied by some of their spouses and children, also blocked Gate 8 leading into the Presidential Villa, causing obstruction to vehicular movement.

Efforts by Villa security personnel to dissuade them from the protest proved abortive as they insisted on seeing the President.

They laid their mats in front of the gate, singing songs of solidarity, while some of them lay on the floor.

As of the time of filing this report, no one from the Villa had addressed the protesters.

CSP Irowainu said that their main purpose is to prevail on President Tinubu to sign the bill exiting the Nigeria Police Force from the CPS, which he said has been passed and transmitted to him by the National Assembly.

He lamented that while other security agencies in the country such as the Army, Navy, Air Force, SSS and others have all been exited from the scheme, the police remain trapped in it.

“Our major aim here is to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sign our bill—the bill exiting the police from the Contributory Pension Scheme—passed by the National Assembly on 4th December 2025 and transmitted to him on 16th March, 2026, into law, nothing more than that.

“The soldiers have been exited, the SSS has been exited, the Air Force has been exited, the Navy has been exited, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has been exited. The police, who are the father of them all, are trapped in this obnoxious Contributory Pension Scheme,” CSP Irowainu said.

It is not the first time retired officers are staging a protest over the CPS. In July last year, they demonstrated at the National Assembly to demand their removal from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The demonstrators, mostly elderly, stood in the rain holding placards and chanting anti-government songs.

Some of the retired police officers also besieged the Force Headquarters in Abuja to protest against the CPS.

Addressing the protesters at the time, the then Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, said the welfare of retired police officers was being addressed, but that the exit of the Force from the Contributory Pension Scheme was not something that could be implemented immediately.

He, however, advised the leaders of the protest to refrain from spreading misinformation, stressing that the Force could not abandon its own.