The Consumer Protection Council (CPC), says it is in no way usurping the functions of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) with its recent decision to step in to protect the rights of air travellers in the country.
Director-General of CPC, Mr. Babatunde Irukera, who stated this against the backdrop of complaints from aviation stakeholders explained that the agency had to move in to assist Nigerian passengers get their rights following recent complaints of abuses from local and international airlines.
Irukera in an interview with aviation reporters said complaints from passengers made the aviation sector to rise and be ranked among the three sectors (electricity, banking and aviation) with the highest number of complaints received by the CPC in the last one year.
According to Irukera, there was no confusion in the laws setting up the two organisations; NCAA and CPC, insisting that his agency was not overlapping on the activities of the aviation industry regulatory body, rather it was ensuring that the rights of consumers are always protected.
He explained that the statutory role of CPC was to protect the consumers in all sectors of the Nigerian economy, and dismissed insinuations that CPC was violating aspects of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recommended practices with its intervention when the rights of Nigerians are violated by airlines.