TheCable

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) says any airline transacting  business in Nigeria in foreign currency is an enemy of the country.

Audu Ogbe, chairman of the forum, said this in a statement on Friday in Kaduna.

Foreign airlines operating in Nigeria have been accused of selling tickets in dollars in other to cushion the effects of their revenue trapped in the country.

Even though the government had released over $260 million to airlines, it appears the measures hitherto taken to ensure the repatriation of the funds are yet to be reversed.

The federal government had recently said it would take punitive actions against airlines who are doing business in foreign currencies.

Speaking on issue, Ogbe said no airline wishing any country good should involve itself in sabotaging its economy through dwarfing the value of its currency.

He said transacting business  in a foreign currency negates the value of the naira and will undoubtedly throw Nigeria and its economy in a precarious situation.

“No airline will venture to perpetrate such ugly thing in most countries across the globe,” he added.

“Any airline transacting a business in Nigeria in foreign currency is an enemy of the nation.

“Even in smaller African nations such callous economic investment was never allowed.”

Ogbe, also a former minister of agriculture the federal government, applauded the pronouncements by  Hadi Sirika, minister of aviation, who warned that any airline operator found selling flight tickets in foreign currency shall be sanctioned as such acts violate the laws.

He called on the aviation ministry to, as a matter of urgency, spread its tentacles in arresting such menace.

Ogbe also called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the  finance ministry and  President  Muhammadu Buhari “to adopt measures in ensuring that, whoever arrives our country must convert his/her currency into naira for whatever business transaction, failure of which amounts to economic sabotage”.