Stella Oduah Exonerates Self From Blame Over Bullet Cars Purchase

The embattled Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah,   has been   accused by the  House of Representatives Committee on Aviation of approving  N564m for the purchase of 54 cars   beyond her power.

The committee alleged that Oduah, who  finally appeared before it  on Thursday after  failing to honour  earlier invitations,  did not follow the budget approved for the Aviation ministry and its agencies  by the National Assembly.

  The minister, who wore a striped blueankara dress with a matching blue head scarf, walked into the hall at 11.42am looking somewhat disturbed.  She also wore white beaded jewellery to complement her embroidered blouse.

Oduah   first walked to take a seat facing the committee  members and made to sit but changed her mind.  She    went halfway between her seat and the high table, where she exchanged pleasantries with the Chairman of the committee, Mrs. Nkiruka Onyejeocha.

After that she walked out of the hall, spending about 10 minutes before returning   to   her seat to make a presentation.

A few seconds after, the committee chairman while giving her opening speech,  tried to douse the tense atmosphere at the venue of the hearing.

“We are not mourning here, there is no aeroplane crash; I want to see everyone smiling. Please  feel  free and relax,” she counselled.

- Oduah on the hot seat

Thereafter, Oduah  was  called upon to testify on her role in the purchase of two bulletproof cars at a whopping N255m and other vehicles by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

She took an  oath,  promising to say  “nothing but the truth, the whole truth.”

  The  minister,  who seemed to have regained confidence   looked   the committee members   in the face and then   apologised for  her  failure  to  honour  their earlier summons.

She  denied that the NCAA  bought  the two   bulletproof cars   for her use.

Her audacity took the lawmakers aback a bit, as she also rationalised the action of the NCAA, claiming that its decision to buy  the  54 cars did not breach any law of the land.

She stated that the NCAA  bought  the bulletproof cars  for its own operations in line with the rising profile of Nigeria as an ICAO member.

The minister, who sounded impatient as she gave her testimony, added that there was a required international standard for state-of-the cars to provide security for visitors and certain category of passengers   visiting  any  country.

According to her, she was alarmed by media reports tying the purchase of the cars to her personal comfort.

She said, “It is not true that NCAA spent N255m to purchase the bulletproof cars for the minister.

“It is totally untrue; there is nothing reflecting my name.  The cars were not registered in my name.

“All I did was approve based on the proposal sent to me on lease financing by the NCAA.”

She defended the NCAA, saying that it bought the cars as part of its three-year budgetary plan to beef up its operational fleet.

But, there was a mild drama when the committee questioned her over the approval of  N564m  for the   54 cars above  the   N100m which ministers could approve.

Oduah said the expectation was that because the NCAA entered into a “lease financing” agreement with the First Bank of Nigerian  to span 36 months, the amount of money it would have paid to the bank by December was N100m.  According to her, the N100m is still within the spending limit.

The Head, Lagos Mainland branch  of First Bank, which handled the transaction, Mr. Seyi Ojefeso,  had on Tuesday told the committee that    the NCAA approached the bank for a loan to purchase vehicles for its management staff.

Ojefeso claimed that it was possible that the NCAA “got it mixed up” when it  described it as a lease agreement.

He explained that the NCAA applied for a loan package of N643m to finance the purchase of  54 vehicles.

For the bulletproof cars, he said there was a Coscharis pro forma invoice attached to the application in the value of N255m.

He added, “We offered an auto loan to the NCAA in May to purchase cars for its management staff.

“The application was for N643m; we financed the purchase of the cars based on the application they submitted to us.”

But the  committee observed that the original request of the NCAA to the  minister   was N564m, but First Bank eventually approved a loan of N643m.

 When asked to explain how the difference came about, Ojefeso said only the NCAA could answer the question since N564m was not in the agency’s communication with the bank.

When the committee members  accused her of giving anticipatory approval for expenditure beyond her power, Oduah  said  she expected the NCAA to go back and do “the needful” by complying with procurement regulations.

Leading the barrage of questions,   Mr. Jerry Manwe stated, “You did not follow the budget approved for you by the National Assembly because when you calculate the total expenditure, the  NCAA would have paid over N1bn for the 54 cars.

“The agency would have paid N160m which is above your approval limit  by December as part of the instalments and not N100m, which is  within your power.

“The committee refused to approve the N140m the NCAA proposed for bulletproof cars because we said you cannot use bulletproof cars to patrol  the perimeter fencing at the airports.

“Nowhere in the budget did we approve bulletproof cars, but you went ahead to spend money in anticipation of budgetary provision.”

But, the minister countered that the interpretation of her approval was that the NCAA should do the appropriate thing by complying with the requirement of procurement laws.

  “My memo says, approved. Please, do the needful; what does that mean? What does that tell you?”, Oduah asked Manwe.

She implied that her approval was not final, to the dismay of lawmakers.

There was more drama when the committee turned the heat on the bureaucracy of the Ministry of Aviation and the management of  the NCAA.

The  Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr. George Ossi, and a former Acting DG of the NCAA, who supervised the transaction, Mr. Joyce Nkem-Akonam, both admitted that the approval implied that they were to comply with due process regulations.

Nkem-Akonam stated, “What the approval means is that we go through due diligence in our system.

“We did that in our procurement department and complied with the law.

“From the point the minister’s approval came, we went ahead with the mindset that we already had a budgetary approval by the National Assembly.”

In the ensuing buck-passing and confusion, the committee read out the portion of the 2013 NCAA budget where the National Assembly “clearly approved only N240m for the purchase of 25 operational vehicles.”

Manwe then  tried to blast the NCAA and the permanent secretary for allegedly “misleading the minister.”

He noted that they ignored the budgetary approval of N240m for 25 cars and made their own proposal of 54 cars for N564m which  was  “far above the approval limit of N100m” without recourse to the Federal Executive Council.

Another member of the committee, Mr. Adeyinka Ajayi, sought to know the date the Board of the NCAA approved the transaction, but there was no answer.

Neither Nkem-Akonam nor Osi could give the date of the approval. They promised to consult and get the date.

Adeyinka again asked, “Where are the bulletproof cars now since the minister has said they were not bought for her?”

Nkem-Akonam replied that the vehicles were “pool cars” that could be used by any officer, including Oduah.

“They are pool cars for VIP movement, including the minister; including you, honourable member”, he added.