FG, Rivers flex muscles over Carveton Helicopters as Wike evicts company

The muscle flexing between the Federal and Rivers Stats Governments has reached its peak with Wednesday eviction of the foremost chopper company from Rivers State by Governor Nyesom Wike.
He evicted Carveton Helicopters from Rivers state, ordering the closure of its offices and operations for alleged unsafe business practice against the state’s Executive Order to check the spread of Corona Virus.
Rivers State Government had the day before arraigned two pilots and 10 passengers of the air transport operator at a Port Harcourt Magistrate Court which remanded all the defendants till May 19, 2020, for the commencement of trial while also ordering Covid-19 tests on the accused to ascertain their status.
Wike in Wednesday’s broadcast on the development said, “We appreciate the need to protect business interests and operations in the state. We will do whatever is required to ensure no business is unduly affected by measures we have taken to combat the Coronavirus.
“However, we shall not welcome businesses or companies that value their activities or profit more than or in clear is disregard of lives and health of our people. Calverton Helicopters have clearly shown that Rivers lives do not matter to it. It is an enemy of Rivers people and is hereby declared persona non grata.
“With this declaration, Calverton Helicopters can only choose to operate in any part of Rivers at its own risk as Local Government Chairmen have been directed to close their offices and prevent their operations.”
He further states that “Their morbid intention is to create panic by pushing up infection rate to rubbish the robust measures we have since put in place to cut off the spread of the virus and keep our state and citizens safe and secure from the ravaging pandemic.
He further stated that “Calverton Helicopters claimed to have flown passengers into Rivers with permits from federal agencies were never bothered to take the State Government into confidence in issuing such permits in violation of our laws and containment orders
“While federal agencies reserve the right to issue flight permits to airline operators to fly into Rivers State, we insist that the State Government must equally be informed and taken into confidence in the process.
“This is the only way to avoid suspicion, conflicts of interests and unnecessary bickering between the State and Federal Governments in our collective efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the country.”
“For us in Rivers, Covid-19 is a matter of life and death. We will   never succumb to any blackmail from any person, institution or   authority in our determination to protect our citizens and state  from the spread of this deadly virus.”
Recall that the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, on Wednesday, lambasted Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, as well as the police officers and the Nigerian Air Force officers, who arrested two Caverton pilots on Tuesday.
Wike had ordered the arrest of the pilots and immediately arraigned them before a Rivers magistrates’ court for flouting the executive order he signed which bars flights in the state amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The governor was accompanied by the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mustapha Dandaura; and a senior Air Force officer.
However, the aviation minister said during the daily COVID-19 briefing in Abuja that the pilots were given the permission by the Federal Government to fly into Rivers State.
Sirika said aviation regulation and laws remain the exclusive preserve of the Federal Government and state governments have no right to regulate flights.
He said, “Civil aviation is on the exclusive list, on item number three. So, no other person except the Federal Government has the authority to legislate upon it. So, also the Nigerian Air Force, part of the Armed Forces, is on the exclusive list. There is no other authority but the Federal Government that has the legal right to legislate upon.
“So, the Air Force officer, who jumped the Commander-in-Chief and ignored him, who also jumped the chief of defence staff and the chief of air staff and ignored them, to call a governor and come into the property of the Federal Government and the Nigerian Air Force to make an arrest have exhibited dangerous ignorance and incompetence grossly.
“On whether we gave approval for the flight, yes we did and we did so in national interest. All of those flights are for the purpose of improving the national revenue to which Rivers State is the greatest beneficiary.
“So, those flights by Caverton, by Aero Contractors, by Bristol and Arik and a couple more were for national interest.”
Additional reports by Vanguard and The Punch