Festus Keyamo, Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, has warned that the federal government may seize Dana Air’s assets to refund passengers and travel agents whose money remains unreturned.
The minister made the remarks on Tuesday in Abuja during the ministry’s fourth-quarter stakeholders’ engagement, themed “leveraging public feedback to drive excellence in aviation services.”
Keyamo stated that he would instruct the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to investigate why the affected refunds have yet to be processed.
Explaining the rationale behind Dana Air’s suspension, Keyamo said the decision prioritized safety over commercial interests to prevent a potential tragedy. He noted that the administration had received “damning reports” regarding the airline’s safety record and operational standards.
He added that while the NCAA had initially grounded the airline, he urged the authority to focus on passenger safety based on the evidence at hand. According to him, “for Dana, the problem is that it was a choice between safety and disaster.”
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“So we didn’t take the commercial thing as a priority. The priority was safety and we all looked at the damning reports that we met on the table,” Keyamo said.
“It was a decision of the NCAA to suspend them, but I pushed them to say, look, these are the reports we are seeing on the table about safety record, about lack of standards that put the lives of Nigerians at risk.
“If they continue flying, I don’t know whether most of us will be here. Many of us would have been victims of one of those flights. God forbid.”
Keyamo disclosed that he has directed Chris Najomo, acting director-general of the NCAA, to ensure passengers and ticket agents receive their refunds.
He said he has “asked Najomo to dig deep to find out how those passengers and agents will be refunded. He has to dig deep on that.”
The minister also suggested that Dana Air or related entities must settle their debts before attempting to re-enter the aviation sector. “One solution will also be that if that same individual or those entities are trying to come back to aviation under any guise, whether to go and register a new AOC or use any business within the aviation sector, they have to go and settle their debts first,” he said.
“We should look at their assets. There are assets that are still available. Let them sell their assets.
“Let’s cannibalise their revenue and pay people. Let’s find a way to go after their assets and get money to pay Nigerians who are owed.
“NCAA should do that because they can’t get away with it.”
Keyamo recalled that on April 24, 2024, he directed the NCAA to suspend Dana Air’s operations following an incident at Lagos airport, where one of the airline’s planes veered off the runway a day earlier. Two days later, internal reports, conducted two years before the incident, revealed that Dana Air was unfit to fly. “The consistent incidents experienced by the airline made me call for a suspension,” he added.