Arik Air begins ‘Fly to Vote Promo’, IPMAN cuts pump price to ease fares
First positive angle of the postponed presidential and national assembly election has emerged from the nation’s transportation industry as Arik Air has slashed air fares for any Nigerian with valid PVC travelling to vote anywhere in the country from Monday, February 18, 2019 to March 11.
This is as the leadership of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has directed its members to reduce petroleum pump price from N145 to N140 as part of the association’s contribution towards encouraging voters to participate in the election processes.
In a terse statement dished out Monday, Arik Air, Nigeria’s leading airline said it introduced a N16, 000 Fly to Vote promotion to encourage Nigerians travel to their respective wards to cast their votes in the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly Elections, as well as the Gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly Elections holding across the country on February 23, 2019 and March 9, 2019 respectively.
The airline explained that the N16, 000 promotional fare is the one-way ticket cost to any domestic destination on Arik Air’s network and customers must present a valid Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC) at the point of purchase and at check in to be eligible to fly.
The Fly to Vote promotion is available for sale from Monday, February 18, 2019 till Tuesday, March 11, 2019 for travel between Thursday, February 21 and Tuesday, February 26, 2019 as well as between Thursday, March 7, 2019 and Tuesday, March 12, 2019.
Promo tickets can be purchased at any of Arik Air’s sales channels such as Airport and City Ticketing Offices or online at www.arikair.com.
Elaborating on the need for the promotion, Arik Air’s Chief Executive Officer, Captain Roy Ilegbodu said: “We have put this promotional fare in place to ameliorate the effect of the postponement on the traveling public and encourage voter participation.”
The IPMAN directive was announced on Sunday by the National President of the association, Elder Chinedu Okoronkwo, represented by Northwest Zonal chairman of the association, Alhaji Bashir Salisu Tahir in Kano. According to him, the association’s president, Mr. Okworonkwo has directed that the implementation of the directives should take effective from Wednesday. He said the decision followed last Saturday’s postponement of Presidential and National Assembly elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
According to him, Nigerians had travelled to different places across the country in order to cast their votes, but to their dismay, the elections were shifted. He added that IPMAN was prompted to slash N5 from the N145 official petroleum pump price in a bid to motivate Nigerians to return to their respective destinations to vote on February 23 and March 9 respectively. “We urged all our members across Nigeria to immediately reduce the price of petroleum pump price from N145 to N140 as directed.
