Stakeholders in the aviation sector has commended the recent victory in Nigerian court where the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos granted Export Development Canada (EDC), a Canadian financial institution the right to repossess and teardown the controversial CRJ1000 aircraft with the registration number: 5N-JEE from the Arik Air’s fleet.

The court also stopped the men and officers of the respondent (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) from harassing, intimidating, detaining and threatening to arrest the applicants or its contractor over the discharge of their lawful civil obligations to take custody, control and teardown of the aircraft.

These were contained in a certified true copy of a judgment delivered by Justice Alexander Oluseyi Owoeye on November 27, 2024 in a suit number: FHC/L/CS/1141/2024 between Capt. Samuel Caulcrick, Captain Isiaka Oyeshina Akinfenwa (applicants) Vs Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as respondent

Read also: Nigerian court allows repossession of Arik Air’s CRJ1000

Festus Keyamo, the minister of aviation and aerospace development on Friday announced in his X handle that Nigeria had recorded the first victory in court cutesy of the Capetown convention.

“The court appealed the Cape Town Convention (CTC) to the fullest and allowed instant repossession of an aircraft,” the minister stated.

Olamide Ohunayo, aviation analyst told BusinessDay that the judgement on Arik Air shows to the outside world that Nigeria is complying with the Capetown convention.

“With this, it means Nigeria is ready to support lessors and manufacturers to repossess their equipment, aircraft engines, spares. This has shown clearly that what the minister pushed and signed is being practiced. The dry lease aircraft which Nigeria was unable access the in the long run will be available to domestic airline operators,” Ohunayo said.

Last year, Nigeria signed the CTC making it one of the few countries in the world to pioneer the issuance of practice directions by the Federal High Court, which is vested with the constitutional jurisdiction on aviation matters.

Before then, Nigeria had majorly failed to comply with the CTC – a convention that regulates the dry-leasing of aircrafts by major manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus and major lessors across the world, who had perceived Nigeria as a non-compliant country.

According to Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development, the CTC compliance index shows Nigeria’s substantial non-compliance, which is largely as a result of legal impediments in the country’ judicial process. These impediments have adverse impact on the implementation of and compliance with terms of the convention.

Keyamo stated that speedy reliefs sought by the creditors were not granted within the 10-day declaration made by Nigeria under the convention.

The minister, with the support of President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and Lateef Fagbemi, attorney-general of the federation, then reached out to key institutions and offices in the judicial sector, resulting in the signing of the practice directions last year.

The new practice directions issued by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court is expected to eliminate judicial impediments in the implementation and compliance with the Cape Town Convention.

This move, according to Keyamo, is also expected to boost investor confidence and open the floodgates to Nigeria’s air operators to have easy access to aircraft acquisition at much lower rates.

Stakeholders say the Cape Town Convention is expected to significantly enhance the growth of the aviation industry by creating more jobs and promoting the rapid economic development of the aviation industry. By doing so, the Nigeria aviation industry, which has a huge global market, can favourably compete.

Ibrahim Mshelia, CEO, West Link Airlines, told BusinessDay that the purpose of the Cape Town Convention protocol is to address issues of opposable rights over aviation movable assets such as engines, aircraft spares and aircraft leases.

“After we have domesticated and fully signed the agreement and there are disputes over the assets, the owners should be able to take their properties away without issues. It is then expected that people would freely lease airplanes to Nigeria without fear of their equipment being held over litigations.

“The signed convention is expected to boost confidence of people in other territories to do business with Nigeria in terms of aviation assets,” he explained.