The All Progressives Congress has accused the Peoples Democratic Party of sabotaging the inauguration of the Gombe State chapter of their party by parking a fire truck on the runway and thus refusing their senior leaders an opportunity to land at the airport.
One of the APC chieftain, a former Minister of State for Power, Murtala Aliyu said the PDP was engaged in “sheer politics of hate”.
He said: “As we were about to land at Gombe Airport at about 1pm, they said our aircraft could not do so because of a fire service truck that spoilt on the runway.
“The pilot was curious because before we took off, he was given clearance that all was well on ground.
“We suspected that it was a deliberate ploy to frustrate APC leaders from attending the inauguration of the state chapter of the party.
“We had to divert our flight to Bauchi where we landed at about 1.30 pm and headed for Gombe by road. Although the programme went on, we were able to reach there at about 6 pm.
“The posers for those behind this crude politics are: why was the tarmac not cleared, because a truck can easily be towed? Why was all airlines and aircraft cleared for flight to Gombe not told?
“There was a glaring violation of international aviation rules. It is criminal to put a truck on the runway to prevent an aircraft from landing.”
Continuing he said, “We suspected political sabotage but it is unhealthy for our politics. We are a developing democracy and resorting to playing pranks will not pay anyone.
“If you know you are doing well, you do not need to be afraid of a harmless inauguration of a state chapter of a party.”
“Certainly, such attitude of denying us landing encourages us to sustain our struggle to effect change in Gombe.
“Now, the incident has enabled us to predict the kind of politics that PDP is out to play with the opposition. This will assist us to prepare ahead.”
However the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) spokesperson, Yakubu Datti said it had issued a notice to airmen that flight would be restricted to Gombe for several hours on Thursday.
He said : ”We issued a notice to airmen that flights would be restricted into the Gombe Airport for some hours on Thursday. This is because aviation authorities were carrying out some operations with the fire tenders. It is global requirement that flights should not be allowed into any airport if there is no sufficient fire cover.
“That is the rule and we expect all operators, whether scheduled or chartered, to abide by aviation regulations.
“But for some category of persons to violate the regulation and insist on the flight is trying to draw attention to themselves. This we consider an infraction against air safety.
“In the discharge of aviation safety in 2014, there will be zero tolerance for violation of aviation regulations.”