Posted by Oluyinka Akintunde and Tobi Soniyi, Abuja on
Following the sale of the headquarters of the Nigeria Airways Limited at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, the liquidator in charge of NAL, Barbington Ashaye, is to begin the sale of the dilapidated and broken down aircrafts and parts of the country's former national carrier.
Following the sale of the headquarters of the Nigeria Airways Limited at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, the liquidator in charge of NAL, Barbington Ashaye, is to begin the sale of the dilapidated and broken down aircrafts and parts of the country's former national carrier.
The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Dr. Julius Bala, who confirmed this at a briefing in Abuja, said the liquidation exercise of the airline was on course.
According to the BPE boss, the next phase of the NAL liquidation exercise would involve the sale of the aircrafts and other parts of the airline as well as the payment of other creditors of NAL and the backlog of salaries of workers.
'The Nigeria Airways is an important transaction. You will remember that the government had taken the position that we should liquidate NAL. We have appointed Barbington Ashaye as the liquidator as well as D.D Dodo and Company as the legal consultant and KPMG Professionals as the accounting and financial consultant.
'The liquidation exercise has started and is on course. You are aware that the liquidator has advertised for the sale of real estate properties in Lagos and the sale has started. The liquidator is now moving towards the sale of other properties of Nigeria Airways, including parts as well as those broken down planes in the hanger at the airport in Ikeja.
'Also the properties outside Lagos have been advertised. The major purpose of the work at this stage is to be able to address the concerns of workers, which are the backlog of salaries of workers of NAL.
'Efforts are being made to source funds through the sale of NAL real estates or properties to be able to pay the arrears of former workers of the airline, as well as pay them three months salaries in lieu of notice, which is the usual thing that is done when you want to start liquidation," he stated.
It would be recalled that BPE and the Minister of Aviation, Mallam Isa Yuguda, were last year embroiled in a face-off over the liquidation of the airline.
The face-off centered on whether the subsidiaries of NAL should be regarded as part of its assets or as different entities from the airline.
The subsidiaries in contest were the Skypower Aviation Handling Company Limited and Skypower Catering Limited.
While the minister wanted NAL's subsidiaries to be separated from the organisation, the bureau insisted that the subsidiaries were part of the airline's assets and should be liquidated along with it.
The minister's position was, however, upheld following the intervention of the Presidency.