Seventeen years after the liquidation of NICON Airways (formerly EAS Airlines), the former staff of the airline are yet to be paid their outstanding salaries and allowances of about N850 million, despite court judgment.

The staff, numbering about 300, have however appealed to Sen. Jimoh Ibrahim, the Chairman of the defunct airline to effect the payment of their outstanding payments.

A document with the title: ‘Unpaid Legitimate and Overdue Entitlements of Ex-Members of Staff of Defunct NICON Airways Ltd Since May 2007’ and obtained by Daily Independent, accused the senator of willful disregard to the rule of law on the debts.

The document, which was signed by Mr. Henry Iwelunmo, on behalf of the former staff, said that the airline, which was acquired from Capt. Idris Wada as EAS Airlines, but was later renamed NICON Airways by Ibrahim, flew for over one year before it was grounded by the new owner due to lack of commitment towards maintenance of the two Boeing 737 aircraft in its fleet before its close of shop.

The former staff alleged that the airline shut operations due the failure of management led by Ibrahim to attend to minor and major faults, stressing that instead of due repairs being attended to, the management and the chairman shut down the airline without any form of communication, information or directives to the staff, thereby leaving them to speculate about the status of the airline, which prompted them to approach the court.

The document stated that the staff of the airline had gone to National Industrial Court in Ikoyi on November 30, 2011 to compel the management of NICON Airlines to pay their accrued salaries and allowances.

According to the document, the former staff were directed to the National Industrial Court, Abuja with the suit number: NCN/LA/192/2011.

After two years of rigorous court process, precisely on September 16, 2013, the aggrieved staff claimed that the court gave judgment in favour of the former workers, but Ibrahim appealed the judgement at the same court and lost on May 23, 2017 in suit number: NICN/ABJ/280/M/2014.

Not satisfied, Ibrahim was said to have approached the Court of Appeal, Abuja judicial division on two occasions and lost in February, 2021 with the most recent being May 15, 2013.

The document added: “Till date, the defendant has not deemed it fit enough to pay us our legitimate and hard earned money, over-due entitlements in the form of salaries, pegged by National Industrial Court from May 2007 to April 2011 and other allowances.

“We are hereby calling on Sen. Ibrahim to do the needful without further delay as we have sine lost many of our colleagues to avoidable deaths, with their families and dependents in abject poverty and untold hardships, while even now, many of our surviving ones are currently facing serious health challenges.

“In the face of current serious harsh economic realities in Nigeria, more suffering and deprivations have been unleashed on Ex-NICON Airways staff, and to avoid further deaths, urgent steps are needed to avert disastrous consequences looming right now. We absolutely have no issues with Sen. Ibrahim’s present predilection for politics, but he should please treat members of the former airline with a modicum of empathy and fear of God.”

The ex-workers added that a 21-page court judgment by Justice M.N. Esowe on September 16, 2013, ordered the management to pay outstanding arrears of leave allowances, crew allowances, overseas unpaid allowances in the United States dollars and cumulative unremitted cooperative by the staff between May 2007 and April 2011 to the ex-workers.

According to the document, the airline was supposed to pay a total of N16.4 million as pension funds to the workers; N8.1 million as the cumulative contributions to the Nigeria Social and Insurance Trust Fund, which was deducted from the workers’ salaries and entitlements within the period, but not remitted and another payment of N808.7m as the aggregate arrears of the workers’ salaries for the period, among others.

The ex-workers described the non-adherence to the court judgment as callousness and lack of sympathy for the staff, lamenting that they laboured for the airline while it existed, only to be abandoned with aircraft sold and flight operations brought to an abrupt end.

Ibrahim could not be reached by our correspondent when contacted on his mobile line.

Our correspondent was simply told “this is a wrong number.”

Ibrahim had in July 2006, acquired EAS Airways with three B737 aircraft and renamed it NICON Airways.

He had said that the airline would for the next few months operate under the existing structure of EAS Airlines and after three months witness changes to reflect international standards, but nothing new was added to the structure of the airline until it went under.