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Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah has told members of the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation that the N255million BMW armoured cars were not bought for her personal use but for the Ministry.<\/p>\n
Oduah told members of the committee that the BMW’s were purchased for the official use of the Ministry and the Minister and not her personal property.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you all are aware, what necessitated this public hearing were the events that followed a false and malicious online publication that I had compelled the NCAA to purchase for me 2 nos BMW bullet proof cars at the cost of $1.6million. \u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me state emphatically that from the onset that the allegation concerning the purchase of the 2 nos bullet proof cars for me by the NCAA is false in its entirety. \u201d After reading her presentation, Rep Zakari Lafia Mohammed asked her whether it is a loan or lease that her agency obtained from FBN, she said it is the same. She said the money NCAA would pay would still be below the N240million at the end of the year.<\/p>\n
On whether she acted within the ambit of the law in giving approval beyond N100 million , she said she approved the money and asked the NCAA to do the needfull.<\/p>\n
What is the needfull? The Committee and the minister disagreed on what do the needfull meant.<\/p>\n
She had claimed that in her approval she said kindly do the needfull.<\/p>\n
Rep Mohammed took on her that saying the needfull means a go ahead to implement.<\/p>\n
Responding, Oduah said\u201dno you are wrong on that the needfull does not mean full approval. \u201d<\/p>\n
The NCAA DG Folu Akinkuotu was asked whether he did the needfull, he said he was not In-charge at NCAA when the order was given for the purchase.<\/p>\n
The permanent secretary of the Ministry, George Ossi was tackled for misleading the minister by not appropriately advising her.<\/p>\n
The committee said the permanent secretary ought to have asked the NCAA to
\ndo the right thing.<\/p>\n
The PS claimed that due diligence ought to have been done by the agency before applying for the approval.<\/p>\n
He claimed that he was not available at the time everything happened .<\/p>\n
The DG said he would have followed the procurement Act if he were the one
\nthe directive was given to do the needfull.<\/p>\n
He said the acting DG Joyce Daniel Nkemakolam ought to explain why he did not do that.<\/p>\n
Nkemakolam said we interpreted the directive to mean to go through it in line with the procurement Act. He said they did the due diligence but they had a mindset that they were within the budget limit.<\/p>\n
But he was asked why he didn\u2019t do due diligence to ensure that it was in tandem with the procurement law, he said he thought since the agency had got the approval of the National Assembly there was no need for such diligence.<\/p>\n
He was asked why he initiated a memo to approve 54 vehicles when what the National assembly approved was 25 vehicles.<\/p>\n
He was reminded that what was approved was N240million and not N643million.<\/p>\n
NCAA was asked whether the board sought approval of the president to approve the car loan. Nkemakolam said he was working on the mindset that they were still within the approved limit. He said that what NCAA discussed with First bank was a lease. He was asked
\nthe date the board of NCAA approved the loan facility.<\/p>\n
The DG was asked how many trainings did he organise for NCAA staff , he said he relied on experts. He said that his mindset has always being that they did not exceed the amount approved. He was asked whether the NCAA board approved the money. He said the NCAA has interim board. He said that he was working on account that it was a lease not loan.<\/p>\n
The drama continued with Rep Manwe asking the former DG of NCAA to disclose who uses the controversial bullet proof cars since the Minister bluntly confessed that they were not bought for her use.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is using the vehicles now since the Minister said they were not purchased for her?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
To the DG, that was one question that got him jolted. Minutes passed before he could provide an answer. And when he finally found his voice, he said \u201cAnybody can use the vehicles when they are in the pool. They are operational vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the Lawmaker wouldn\u2019t give up. He continued with a rider to the question.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you mean that a messenger or cleaner in the agency can use the cars?\u201d He asked. At this juncture, the hearing room became deadened in silence with the DG losing his voice for the second time.<\/p>\n
And when again, he found it, he answered this way: \u201cthose categories of vehicles are for VIPs which include the Minister, including you, the Honorable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just then a blast of laughter erupted in the hall which to some extent provided some comic relief to everyone in the hall.<\/p>\n
But Rep Manwe wouldn\u2019t stop. He asked again, \u201ccan we have the log book of the movement of the car? With a subdued babbling voice which came in separate minutes, the DG answered \u201d I am not a transport officer. I don\u2019t know whether they are still keeping those log books.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it now became obvious that the DG was exhaustive of all the answers he had, the Lawmakers mandated the agency to bring the man who received the vehicles at the point of delivery by Coscharis Motors. With that, the hearing came to a close.<\/p>\n
In her closing remark, the chairperson, Onyejeocha assured Nigerians that justice would be done to the report of the hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cFact speak for itself. We have tried to listen to people: Coscharis, the Minister, NCAA, First Bank , BPP and Customs, and we have their
\nsubmissions with us. We will consider what we have whether it is in line with the extant laws and financial regulations.<\/p>\n
We assure everyone and all Nigerian that we will do justice to this hearing,\u201d Onyejeocha said.<\/p>\n
Speaking with some Journalists shortly after the hearing, the Minister, Oduah expressed gratitude to the National Assembly for giving her an opportunity to present her own side of the story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah has told members of the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation that the N255million BMW armoured cars were not bought for her personal use but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n