10th April, 2020
The two pilots of Caverton Helicopters being held in Port Harcourt will be released soon and will not be prosecuted or convicted.
Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika, himself a pilot said this in Abuja today.
He said the Federal Police that arrested the pilots acted ignorantly.
Sirika spoke as a member of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
He said the pilots were on a national assignment.
He said the issue should not be over-flogged.
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers ordered the arrest of the pilots, saying they breached the coronavirus lockdown rules of the state.
He dragged them to a magistrate court, which ordered the remand of the pilots in prison.
It was later learnt that the magistrate varied the order that the pilots be held in a house in the Port Harcourt GRA.
But Wike escalated the action he took, by ordering the closure of the Port Harcourt office of Caverton.