Hon Zakari Lafia Mohammed is the spokesman of
the House of Representatives and a member of
the House Committee on Aviation. In this chat, he
speaks on how the committee will ensure that all
necessary avenues are explored to deliver justice
to Nigerians on reckless spending in government. By Emman Ovuakporie The Minister of Aviation is said to have gone
abroad despite the N255m cars scandal involving
her. Do you think her action is appropriate? That is another serious act of impunity on the part
of the minister. It is also a clear case of not taking
the parliament seriously, it is rather unfortunate.
All she ought to have done is to delegate her
Permanent Secretary or a Director in her ministry
to carry out the rituals of signing the BASA agreement and face squarely what is on ground
for her. The heavens will not fall if another person
signs on behalf of Nigeria. We will not stop until
we get to the bottom of why such a huge sum of
money was spent for vehicles. What exactly did the National Assembly approve
for the NCAA? Take a peep at page six of their budget, we
approved 5 Toyota Pickup Hilux, 16 Toyota
Corolla, 5 Toyota Landcruiser Jeeps, 3 Toyota
Hiace buses all at a cost of N240 million but they
eventually bought 54 vehicles through the bank
lease for the sum of N643 million which was financed by the bank. There was no time we
discussed the issue of a lease with them during
the budget defence. I do not want to preclude
this investigative hearing but we will dis-
passionately seek justice for all Nigerians through
this investigation. Never again in the history of Nigeria will public servants take Nigerians for a
ride. But, from all indications, it appears as if the
minister may not meet your deadline for the
hearing as you are expected to close shop on
Tuesday? If she fails to show up we will issue a bench
warrant to get her arrested. Arrest! Has it come to that? This is a national issue that must be properly
thrashed out with the zeal of a wounded lion. If
need be, we will ask the Speaker to issue a bench
warrant immediately she fails to show up and she
will be arrested. We’ve given her enough grace as
the committee will sit on Friday, Monday and Tuesday. All those excuses given on her behalf
will not hold by the time we conclude our
findings.
You mentioned that NCAA officials used two
budgets. What do you mean? Yes! They are using both the approved budget
and the unapproved one. In the approved one, we
clearly deleted the purchase of armoured cars
and, in the approved budget, armoured cars were
not captured. This is a clear case of ineptitude and
negligence of duty which can never be accepted by Nigerians that we represent here in the
National Assembly. But why would….? The simple instruction we gave is that they should
delete the armoured cars. We argued then that
they do not need such cars to inspect perimetre
fence. It is embarrassing to us and the entire
country.
the House of Representatives and a member of
the House Committee on Aviation. In this chat, he
speaks on how the committee will ensure that all
necessary avenues are explored to deliver justice
to Nigerians on reckless spending in government. By Emman Ovuakporie The Minister of Aviation is said to have gone
abroad despite the N255m cars scandal involving
her. Do you think her action is appropriate? That is another serious act of impunity on the part
of the minister. It is also a clear case of not taking
the parliament seriously, it is rather unfortunate.
All she ought to have done is to delegate her
Permanent Secretary or a Director in her ministry
to carry out the rituals of signing the BASA agreement and face squarely what is on ground
for her. The heavens will not fall if another person
signs on behalf of Nigeria. We will not stop until
we get to the bottom of why such a huge sum of
money was spent for vehicles. What exactly did the National Assembly approve
for the NCAA? Take a peep at page six of their budget, we
approved 5 Toyota Pickup Hilux, 16 Toyota
Corolla, 5 Toyota Landcruiser Jeeps, 3 Toyota
Hiace buses all at a cost of N240 million but they
eventually bought 54 vehicles through the bank
lease for the sum of N643 million which was financed by the bank. There was no time we
discussed the issue of a lease with them during
the budget defence. I do not want to preclude
this investigative hearing but we will dis-
passionately seek justice for all Nigerians through
this investigation. Never again in the history of Nigeria will public servants take Nigerians for a
ride. But, from all indications, it appears as if the
minister may not meet your deadline for the
hearing as you are expected to close shop on
Tuesday? If she fails to show up we will issue a bench
warrant to get her arrested. Arrest! Has it come to that? This is a national issue that must be properly
thrashed out with the zeal of a wounded lion. If
need be, we will ask the Speaker to issue a bench
warrant immediately she fails to show up and she
will be arrested. We’ve given her enough grace as
the committee will sit on Friday, Monday and Tuesday. All those excuses given on her behalf
will not hold by the time we conclude our
findings.
You mentioned that NCAA officials used two
budgets. What do you mean? Yes! They are using both the approved budget
and the unapproved one. In the approved one, we
clearly deleted the purchase of armoured cars
and, in the approved budget, armoured cars were
not captured. This is a clear case of ineptitude and
negligence of duty which can never be accepted by Nigerians that we represent here in the
National Assembly. But why would….? The simple instruction we gave is that they should
delete the armoured cars. We argued then that
they do not need such cars to inspect perimetre
fence. It is embarrassing to us and the entire
country.
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