The Arewa Consultative Forum has welcomed the stand taken by the Federal Government against airlines in the country selling flight tickets in foreign currencies.
The Chairman of the ACF, Chief Audu Ogbeh, supported the position of the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, that any airline found wanting shall be sanctioned.
In a statement issued in Kaduna on Thursday, Ogbeh noted that the group was in support of any stern move aimed at deterring local and foreign airlines transacting business in Nigeria in foreign currencies.
This, according to the ACF chairman, will negatively affect the value of the naira and leave Nigeria and its economy in a precarious situation.
Ogbeh, who noted that no airline would venture to do such in most countries of the world, warned that any airline transacting business in Nigeria in foreign currencies was an enemy of the nation.
He, therefore, called on the aviation ministry to, as a matter of urgency, spread its tentacles in arresting the menace.
“No airline wishing any country good should involve itself in sabotaging its economy through dwarfing the value of its currency,” he added.
The former Agriculture minister noted that even in smaller African nations, such would never be allowed.
Ogbeh called on the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and relevant authorities such as the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Ministry of Finance “to take stern measures in ensuring that whoever arrives our country must convert his/her currency into naira for whatever business transaction. Failure amounts to economic sabotage.”
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