By: Sunday Oyewole The Senate has confirmed that the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) also illegally purchased four armoured vehicles- two Limousines and two Toyota Prado cars for the use of the embattled Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah and the Managing Director of FAAN, George Uriesi.
Recently, it was discovered that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), another parastatal under the Ministry of Aviation purchased two BMW Li Series armoured cars for the minister without following due process and at a grossly inflated cost of N255 million.
The House of Representatives committee on aviation is currently investigating the purchase that has continued to receive condemnation.
Hope Uzodima, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation at a public hearing on Wednesday said that FAAN boss, George Uriesi confirmed the purchase of the four armoured vehicles and another 202 operational vehicles.
The aviation committee chairman stunned those at the hearing when he said, “Investigation is still ongoing and it will not be fair for me to pre-empt it.
“FAAN did confirm that among the operational vehicles they purchased, four of them are armoured vehicles, two for the Managing Director and two for the Minister of Aviation.
“And we told them to go back and put everything in writing and make a comprehensive statements on all vehicles purchased, that they bought a total number of 202 vehicles bought for different operations so until they come back on Monday we cannot rush into conclusion. “The MD FAAN said they did a funding arrangement with a commercial bank.”
Uriesi while testifying at the hearing said the limousines were bought for N60m each but could not however confirm the cost of the Prado jeeps, adding that the vehicles are in the custody of a bank.
He however, declined to name the bank that funded the purchase of the vehicles as claimed. He also told the committee that the Minister of Aviation, Oduah approved the purchase but added that somebody refused to disclose signed on his behalf.
The committee chairman, Uzondima said the committee would conduct a thorough investigation into the matter with a view to ascertaining whether due process was followed or not.
His words, “This investigation will be a very deep one so that at the end of the day, we do a holistic approach and look at how the sector will be repositioned so that all anomalies will be corrected”
