I am indeed very curious as to why they really want to know the whistleblower ...what we should focus on as a people and government is, did she do it? Who authorized the spending? Let her and those involved be made to explain...
The embattled Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, has commenced last- ditch efforts to save her job.The PUNCH learnt on Sunday that she had used the last few days seeking private audience with President Goodluck Jonathan.On Friday for instance, she was sighted at the Presidential Villa in Abuja as calls by groups for her removal over the purchase of two BMW bulletproof cars for her by the Nigerian Civil Aviation authority heightened.The NCAA spent a whopping $1.6m(N225m) on the two cars which market value is N36m each.A very reliable Presidency source, who disclosed Oduah’s visit to the Villa, said she “wanted to explain herself to the President, who like every Nigerian, was embarrassed by the media reports and the evidence of the purchase of the two cars at an outrageous sum of N225m.”The source said, “She was here (Villa) on Friday but like you know, Mr. President was busy throughout the weekend.”When asked if Oduah eventually saw Jonathan, he replied, “I cannot tell for sure if the minister who looked worried saw him or not.”However, the source dismissed speculations that Oduah, who is to appear before the Senate this week over the crisis facing the Aviation industry, was at the Villa to beg the President to prevent possible sanctions.He stated that should she decide to beg, she would most likely reach out to highly placed Nigerians who have the ears of the President. The source mentioned the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih; former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; and Ijaw National Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, as such prominent Nigerians.Our correspondents gathered that apart from the calls from outside government circle for her sacking, some of her colleagues are believed to be telling people close to her to advise her to voluntarily quit in order to save the Jonathan administration further embarrassment.A female minister is said to be leading the campaign as she sees this as an opportunity to get even with Oduah.It was learnt that a female minister, who allegedly bought a private jet, has been angry that Oduah was the prime suspect in an embarrassing publication involving the leasing of the jet at outrageous sums per trips made by top government officials.Investigations also revealed that the release of the documents on the purchase of the two vehicles was likely the fallout of infighting among female ministers in the President’s cabinet.Meanwhile, Indications emerged at the weekend that the nation’s anti-graft agencies may soon launch a probe into the purchase of two BMW 760 armoured cars worth $1.6m (N255m) for the Aviation Minister, Ms. Stella Oduah, by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA.The cost of the controversial cars, according to reports from certain independent investigation, ought not to have exceeded N78.5m.A highly placed source in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, told National Mirror that operatives of the agency “will soon carry out an investigation into what has become a scandal in the vital aviation sector” and bring to book those involved in the purchase of the vehicles.The anti-graft agency, which said that there was no formal petition directed to it, however, disclosed that nothing in its Act stopped it from wading into such matter.An impeccable source at the commission told National Mirror that since the scandal broke open last week, the anti-corruption agency had commenced move to invite those either directly or remotely connected to the purchase for interrogation.The source, who did not want his name mentioned, told National Mirror that there would be no sacred cow.“This is a serious matter. We are not taking it lightly. But we will investigate it thoroughly. I can only assure that if there is any fraud uncovered, everybody connected shall be prosecuted. Just wait and see,” he said.The agency spoke just as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, also vowed to probe the allegation if it could get an official petition.An official of the commission, who spoke with our correspondent, said that while the EFCC could move into the matter without petition addressed to it, ICPC could not.He said that the Act which established the commission forbids it from doing such, stressing that the commission on its own checks the records of agencies and ministries regularly to check corruption.This is even as indications emerged yesterday that pressures were piling on President Goodluck Jonathan to sack Oduah over the purchase of the two controversial cars. But this is unlikely as National Mirror gathered that the presidency would not rush into taking any action until it has thorough investigated the matter.The car purchase scandal, which was blown open last week, had generated reactions from civil society groups and union leaders in the aviation industry who have been calling on the President to relieve the minister of her position, accusing her of corruption, incompetence and negligence of duties.They argued that the minister must not continue to oversee the aviation sector, which has been bedevilled by plane crashes, killing many.The Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Ahmed Gulak, said that the matter would be thoroughly investigated by relevant agencies before a decision would be taking on the minister.A group, known as The Patriots, had written to the Presidency, accusing Oduah of collecting N158m monthly from the accounts of aviation agencies, including the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, NCAA, FAAN and other agencies under her.The group alleged that the deductions had successfully crippled the operations of the agencies concerned to the extent that paying staff entitlements have recently become a herculean task.Oduah was also alleged to have a stake in Price Waters Coopers, PWC, which audited various aspects of four agencies at N250m each.However, the Secretary General of the National Union of Air Transport Employees, NUATE, Comrade Abdulkareem Motajo, said that what is happening in the sector now is not novel to the unions.According to him, NUATE had severally in the past written petitions to the Presidency, National Assembly and other agencies without any action taken by the government.He insisted that Oduah should not be removed, but should be probed by anti-corruption agencies in the country, alleging that the industry has been ran aground by the minister.In a related development, National Mirror learnt yesterday that the Senate and House of Representatives may dissolve their Aviation Committees soon.The decision to replace the Committees’ Chairmen may not be unconnected with the decision of the South-East Caucus of the National Assembly to warn its membership from acting or making any statements that would give vent to the call on Aviation Minister to resign from her office.The two committees are chaired by lawmakers from the South-East. Senator Hope Uzodinma (PDP-Imo) is the chairman of the Senate committee, while the House of Representatives is chaired by Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha (Abia-PDP).Some members of the civil society groups and stakeholders have demanded for the resignation of the minister, who is from Anambra State on account of her poor handling of the aviation sector, her grumpy reaction to the October 3, 2013 plane crash in Lagos, which claimed 15 lives who were accompanying the corpse of late Dr. Olusegun Agagu, an ex-Governor of Ondo State to his hometown.But the South East caucuses of both the Upper and Lower chambers, it was learnt from a reliable source at the weekend, have kept mum in spite of the outcry for the removal of the minister.The minister on her part has insisted, through her spokesman, Mr. Joe Obi, that the purchase of the cars can be justified in the face of threat to her life because of the “gains recorded in the aviation sector.”On the allegations that the South-East members of the National Assembly had decided to keep sealed lips, National Mirror called the Chairman of the House Committee severally, and each time she picked the call, she would drop it the moment the issue of a possible probe of the Aviation Ministry on sundry allegations arose.After the reporter persisted with calls, using different lines, she responded at a point and asked the reporter to call again in an hour which was about 2p.m., the reporter did that several times but as at press time, the calls were never answered.Also, when efforts to reach the spokesman of the House, Hon. Zakari Mohammed (PDP-Kwara), to react to the issue failed, our correspondent decided to call his Deputy, Hon. Victor Afam Ogene (APGA-Anambra), who said he was not aware of the issue.“I have not been following newspaper reports on the matter, so I don’t know what you are talking about,” he said.Ogene, a vocal member of the House, rather directed our correspondent to call Mr. Mohammed or “wait for the House to resume”.A member of the House, however, told National Mirror that the National Assembly will intervene on the matter.He said: “There is no way we can push the matter under the carpet. If the two aviation committees are clearly biased because the minister is their sister, we would use an ad hoc committee to do the job.“If the push gets to shove and the minister refuses to resign on account of wrongdoing, then we might consider sanitising our own House first by removing the Igbo Committee Chairmen, because it is clear tribalism is rearing its head here.”The Chairman of the South-East Caucus in the House, Hon. Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi (PDP-Enugu), could also not be reached at press time to respond to the issues.All efforts to get the chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation, Senate Hope Uzodinma comment on the controversy failed as the lawmaker refused to pick several calls made to his telephone line. The lawmaker also refused to respond to questions posed to him through text messageBut, the Senate said yesterday that it will not comment on the controversy.Senate spokesman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe in a telephone interview with National Mirror last night explained that the Senate will refrain from commenting on the matter because the issue is not yet before the red chamber.“Senate cannot comment on a matter that is not before it. We are still on break and when we resume and if the matter is brought before us, then we can look into the matter,” Abaribe said in reply to a request for the position of the Senate on the matter.A member of the House of Representatives and Chairman, Committee on Treaties and Agreements, Hon. Dayo Bush-Alebiosu said that the House will take a position on the ongoing crisis.Bush-Alebiosu also disagreed with Oduah that the October 3, 2013 crash was an act of God.Speaking with National Mirror in an exclusive interview in Lagos yesterday, Bush-Alebiosu said that it would be wrong for him or the House members to judge the minister on the information gathered on the pages of the newspapers, but assured that the House would investigate the matter and take a position.He assured that the House would do a thorough job on the issue and would ensure that justice was done.He said: “There is a Committee on Aviation in the House whose function is to deal with that and there is another committee, which deals with anti-corruption, and another one on narcotics and financial. Those are the three committees that I think will be saddled with such responsibility. Because of the peculiarity of my committee, which is treaties, there is hardly any agency or ministry that is not involved in one treaty or the other. That is why we have a hand on the entire ministry.“But as a member of the House, I am allowed to comment on this, however, it will be unfair of me and premature of me to comment when we have not gotten the report of an investigation. I don’t know what her reasons are, but I believe when she’s invited, she would be able to state her reasons. We won’t just put our judgement on whatever we read on the pages of newspapers.”On the Associated Aviation plane tragedy, Bush- Alebiosu, insisted that there was nothing like an act of God in the crash.Rather, he insisted that there were some lapses in the system, which gave room for the ill-fated crash, adding that an act of God would have been a huge storm, flooding and natural disasters.Bush-Alebiosu said: “Yes, I’m aware that the minister said the crash was an act of God. There is no crash that is an act of God as far as I’m concerned. An act of God is a huge storm and flooding. When you see an act of God, you will know what it is, but a plane that takes off and comes down, signifies that something was wrong somewhere.“You don’t tell the people that it was an act of God. I respectively say this and I do not intend to confront the minister with this; you don’t call that accident an act of God because I’ve gotten so many responses from many Nigerians, but when we are able to identify what the cause is, then, it puts the minds of the people at rest as to the cause of a particular crash. Having said this, I believe the accident is still under investigation and for me, it is too early to start saying it was an act of God.”Meanwhile, a civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, yesterday called on President Jonathan to sell the controversial cars.“Selling the cars as proceeds of corruption and using the funds to pay compensation to families of victims of persistent air accidents would also have the great additional benefit of reining in endemic corruption in the sector as perpetrators would know that they would not be allowed to profit from their crime,” SERAP said in a statement by its executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni.The organisation also asked the president “to publicly assure Nigerians that the whistleblower that leaked the information of the two BMW armoured cars bought for Oduah will be fully protected from any harassment, intimidation or persecution by the authorities.”The organisation said it would offer “free legal services to ensure full protection and safety of the whistleblower in line with international standards. We appeal to the whistleblower to get in touch with our organization, and assure whoever this may be our full support and confidentiality. The whistleblower should be celebrated and not persecuted.”
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