The Aviation authorities have denied the
report that says Minister of aviation Stella Oduah compelled aviation agency to
spend $1.6m on two armories cars for her. They also said that the minister is
too rich to compel an agency under her to buy her cars.
Premium Times reports that,
Aviation authorities in Lagos
attempted a vigorous push back on Tuesday report that the nation’s aviation
minister, Stella Oduah, abused her office by compelling the Nigerian Civil
Aviation Authority, NCAA, to purchase two armoured BMW cars for her worth N255
million.
The New York based online
newspaper, Sahara Reporters, claimed in an investigation report that
Mrs. Oduah compelled the NCAA, an agency under her supervision, in a presumed
case of corruption, conflict of interest, and abuse of office, to procure the
cars for her with public funds.
Aviation spokesman, Yakubu
Datti, dismissed the newspaper report as “rumours” suggesting that it was
politically motivated.
“I don’t respond to
rumours…[and] as we approach 2015, people are bound to make up all sorts of
stories,” Mr. Datti told PREMIUM TIMES in an interview, arguing, “This is a
woman (Mrs. Oduah) who is successful and established. A woman that made her
mark in oil and gas, who owned trucks, barges, and so on. What is two cars?”
The newspaper, which supported
its report with documents of the procurement, said it discovered that Mrs.
Oduah, a close associate of President Goodluck Jonathan, is enmeshed in a
pattern of questionable expenditures in the aviation ministry.
Sources at the agency also said,
according to the paper, that the NCAA embarked on such a jamboree despite its
“financial challenges.”
“The NCAA does not have enough
funds to upgrade equipment, send staff for critical training, and hire enough
qualified staff. Yet, all the minister is concerned about is to have two exotic
BMW cars from the little money we have for operations,” SaharaReporters quoted
a source as saying.
The aviation ministry however
declaimed such suggestion, describing it as “ridiculous.”
Documents obtained by
SaharaReporters showed that the transaction for the purchase of the two BMW
vehicles began last June.
The request for delivery of and
payment for the two vehicles was, however, fast-tracked between August 13 and
15. The transaction involved the NCAA, First Bank of Nigeria, and Coscharis
Motors Limited.
In a letter dated August 13,
2013, J.D Nkemakolam, the former Acting Managing Director of the NCAA, sent a
letter to the Managing Director of Coscharis Motors asking the company to
deliver two BMW 760 armoured vehicles to the agency based on a pro-forma
invoice dated June 25, 2013 at the cost of N127, 575,000 ($796,846.21) each.
The total amount for the two
black BMW Li HSS vehicles, with chassis numbers WBAHP41050DW68032 and
WBAHP41010DW68044 respectively, was N255,150,000, or $1,593,687.31.
The NCAA’s letter further
directed Coscharis Motors to deliver the vehicles with sales invoices, delivery
notes, and attestation documents.
SaharaReporters stated that the
payment for the vehicles was made into a First Bank of Nigeria account (number
2018912995 with sort code: 0111152303), according to a letter signed by Godwin
Umeaka, Coscharis’ group financial controller.
The two cars were delivered to
the NCAA on August 13, 2013, where it was received by two store managers, F.
Onoabhagbe and Y.A. Amzat (who is also the agency’s head of transport). On
August 15, 2013, Sola Ogunsakin of the NCAA signed off to certify completion of
the transaction.
While the aviation ministry
under Mrs. Oduah embarked on a massive face-lift of airports across the
country; the Nigerian airspace also witnessed several air mishaps that led to
the loss of over 150 lives.
“Under Mrs. Oduah, the ministry
has carried out many big capital development projects. But what outsiders don’t
know is that these projects are being used to divert big amounts into private
pockets,” SaharaReporters quoted an aviation source as saying.
The newspaper, however, said
that its sources stated that they were not aware of the whereabouts of the new
cars, with some claiming that the minister had converted them to private use.
But Mr. Datti dismissed such
claims, adding that Mrs. Oduah lived a life of comfort graced by generosity in
which she “buys cars and dashes to people” long before she became a minister.
Also, when contacted, Joe Obi,
the minister’s spokesperson, promised to get back to PREMIUM TIMES after
“verifying the story and the document” published alongside the article.
“At the moment, I can’t give you
any response because I need to authenticate the documents published on the
website,” Mr. Obi said.
“We would do that shortly,” he
added.
If you want to see the documents obtained by the
newspaper for the report then you need to check our previous post here
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