BMW Gate: Reps tell sacked Aviation minister, Stella Oduah, to return armoured BMW cars to supplier for a refund

Posted by admin Aviation, Latest Politics, National Politics, Top Stories Thursday, June 5th, 2014

Stella Oduah

The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has ordered that the two bulletproof cars worth N255m procured by the former Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, be returned to the suppliers.

The Chairman of the committee, Nkieruka Onyejeocha, said this during an oversight inspection of the aviation sector on Wednesday.

She said the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority should return the cars to the suppliers, failure of which could result in another public hearing.

She said, “We recommend that further payment of the cars should be discontinued and that the cars be returned to where they were bought or whoever faciliated the purchase.

“Those bulletproof cars should be returned to the suppliers and the money recovered. We will call a public hearing on the matter of they fail to return the cars. So, they should be returned and the money invested in the aviation industry.”

According to her, the house is not satisfied with the relationship between First Bank of Nigeria Plc that facilitated the purchase of the cars and the aviation agencies.

The House also criticised the agreement signed between the aviation agencies and First Bank for the payment of a revenue and automation platform through Avi- Tech Nigeria Limited.

Avi- Tech Nigeria Limited was engaged to facilitate the automation and collection of aeronautical revenue for aviation agencies.

The House committee chairman condemned the way the FAAN/Maevis agreement was terminated, stating that it was not transparent.

She sought to know those behind the Aerotropolis Project Limited, saying that as much as the airport city initiative was important in developing the aviation sector, it would be important to know the promoters.

She noted that Nigerians did not need a bank to collect revenue, rather the bank should be required to save money collected.

But in his response, the Managing Director, FAAN, Mr. Saleh Dunoma, noted that the automation had improved the revenue collection of the agencies in the industry.

He said that the Aerotropolise project was to make sure that development around the airport was planned in line with what was obtained all over the world.

-Punchwp_posts