NIGERIA MASTERWEB DAILY NEWS

*Nigeria: I Was Never Arrested By FIRS Says Arik Boss

By Nosa Osula-Aituamen

Chairman of Arik Air Sir Arumemi Ikhide has denied being arrested by the Nigeria Police Force on the orders of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), over failure to remit taxes from the operations of the airline alleging running into over N3 billion affirming that officials of the FIRS only visited the premises of Air Air to reconcile accounts over figures that in dispute. Sir Arumemi-Ikhide who briefed reporters at the corporate headquarters of Arik Air also denied that the managing director of the airline Mr. Chris Ndulue as well as the vice president in charge of finance of the carrier was also arrested.

The Arik Air boss explained that officials of the FIRS only visited the airline for clarifications on issues bordering on figures to be taxed from the proceeds of its ticket sales, which he said needed the full imput of the airline, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA), and other stakeholders. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: Arik Chairman, Sir Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide (right) receiving the Company of The Year Award from Nigeria’s former High Commissioner to South Africa, Alhaji Shehu Malami at the Leadership Awards for Excellence 2009 held in Abuja on Friday, April 30, 2010.

He said : "At no no time was I arrested, in fact at the said time, I was far away in London, how could I be in London and at the same time be arrested in Nigeria. Sometimes, I wonder where such misrepresentations are coming from, which only intent is to portray the airline in bad light.

We do not need to join issues with anybody, but to just put the record straight by insisting that nobody from Arik Air was arrested by officials of the Federal Inland Revenue Service.

The FIRS officials were only here on courtesy visit, they did not invade Arik Air offices, just the way journalists come in here, they were here carried out their routine assignment and left. At no time did they arrest me or anybody."

He further said of the issues that led to the visit of FIRS officials to Arik Air: "The FIRS write a letter to us in Arik Air that they will like to clear some issues over ticket sales with our officials and we gave them appointment for October 25, 2011. But, before that date we had some issues with the technology that controls our ticket sales and the accruing revenue it should capture. To get such issues sorted out takes quite some time, because the officials handling the technology had traveled to Dubai to fix the equipment that drives the technology. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: A landing Arik Plane

When the FIRS officials visited the affected officials were not on ground to carry out the accounts reconciliation. So, to put it in persective, Arik Air does not owe FIRS, we have already paid about N1.2 billion out of the N2.1 billion.

It was a case of disagreement in sales figures that the FIRS officials sourced from the NCAA, which we as an airline need to reconcile. But, due to the failure in technology, we were unable to achieve that."

The Arik Air further explained such misrepresentation of facts could send negative signals to the international community that is poised to drive the growth of the aviation industry through the injection of the much needed funds.

He explained that information making the round that Arik Air has acquired a brand aircraft worth several millions of dollars, could not be true because the airline has been utilizing multi lateral funding to acquire state - of - the - art equipment, which may have prompted the visit of the team to its office.

He explained that Arik Air will continue to demonstrate its obedience to the laws of the land as a responsible organisation, and not a debt ridden outfit out to short change government. Sir Arumemi- Ikhide lauded the efforts of the Federal Government to assist the airline by creating a conducive atmosphere for it to carry out its business with restrictions in terms of policy and a friendly operating environment.

He also lauded the efforts of the Assets Management Company of Nigeria ( AMCON), which has assisted Arik Air through Union Bank to acquire working capital to keep the operations of the carrier afloat.

Nosa Osula-Aituamen (Aviationreport)

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