Oduah confesses: I approved purchase, but cars not for me

[Mirror]

Embattled Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, yesterday admitted at the House of Representatives' public hearing that she gave approval for the purchase of the N255m armoured cars bought by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA.

The minister, who denied that she was directly involved in the purchase, however, agreed that she gave N643m approval for the purchase of cars, in cluding two armoured cars.

Indications also emerged at the hearing that the House of Representatives' Committee on Aviation might after all give the embattled minister a soft-landing.

In what could be described as a volte-face, the committee rather accused the NCAA of trying to mislead it and shifted focus away from the minister.

Oduah told the committee that the cars were not purchased for her use.

She however did not tell the committee who the vehicles were meant for, just as she debunked an earlier information provided to the committee that the N643m was borrowed from First Bank on a three-year lease basis.

"At no time did I ever request for any vehicle from the NCAA. It was the agency that had the need and made the request to the Federal Ministry of Aviation.

"After the purchase on a three-year lease financing arrangement, the vehicles were never delivered to me. The vehicles were also not registered in my name, but that of the agency.

"All I did was to approve the request of the agency subject to the agency doing the needful as evidenced by my minutes on the letter dated April 15, 2013," the minister said.

She insisted that the two armoured cars were provided for in the budget by the National Assembly.

"Your honours, I draw attention to this fact because of the erroneous belief in some quarters that, because in the course of the NCAA defending its budget proposal for 2013, it had to return to the NASS a few times to explain their proposal, therefore, the purchase was never appropriated. This may not be totally correct as two security/ safety vehicles were provided for," she said.

On whether the purchase of the cars followed due process, she insisted that it did.

"On June 28, 2013, NCAA parastatal tenders board approved the selection of the First Bank of Nigeria Plc for the lease financing as well as Metropolitan Motor Vehicles and Coscharis for the supply of the vehicles.

"This approval was predicated on the due process documentation done by the NCAA," Oduah added.

When the legislators reminded the minister that her approval limit as provided by the law, was N100m but that she approved over N500m for the purchase of vehicles by NCAA in violation of the law.

She denied violating the law in any way, noting that her actions were within the provisions of the law.

But last week, the Public Procurement Office told the committee that NCAA never contacted or invited the Bureau for Public Procurement, as required by law, to vet the contract for the cars.

The FBN through its Retail Services Head, SeyiOyefeso, also told the committee that the cars it agreed to finance were for the minister.

She also disowned her Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Joe Obi's earlier statement that the cars were bought to protect her from assassination threats from her detractors, stressing that her press bashing were uncalled for.

Oduah said: "In the last few weeks, I have received all sorts of bashings in the media. Many persons have also risen to my defence. Many have abused me, some out of a genuine sense of outrage that I allegedly spent the sum of $1.6m of government funds to purchase for myself two bulletproof BMW cars for my personal use.

"You may recall that there have been attempts at clarifying issues pertaining to this particular procurement. In the process, some of the issues were further muddled up. I mention in this regards the first attempt at clarifying the issue by the coordinating spokesman for the parastatals when he was first confronted with the allegation, without recourse to the minister or the principal officer of the ministry and its agencies, described the information as a mere rumour.

"This followed by the statement of my S.A. Media(Mr. Joe Obi) who was himself guided by his own perception of the duties and challenges of my office and possibly, even the danger to the person and office of the minister.

"This is made evident by the fact that his statement focused on my personal security and safety without recourse to procurement process and policy file to which he had no access."

After a 30-minute delivery of her 12-page submission on the allegations against her, Oduah, who appeared before the House Committee on Aviation, after a few questions, took the backseat as the heat was turned on the NCAA.

The committee insulated her from the knotty questions and chose instead to put the NCAA Acting Director-General at the time the deal was struck, Mr. Joyce Daniel Nkemakolam, on the spot.

Despite his passing the buck to the minister, the committee insisted it was the NCAA that was "trying to mislead it".

Members of the committee lambasted Nkemakolam for "failing to advice the minister, who was busy with policy issues, against signing the said contract", despite Oduah's earlier submission that she was aware of her contract approval limits.

Nkemakolam had also told the Hon. Nkeiruka- Onyejeocha-led Committee on Aviation that the NCAA committed the money with the "mind-set that it was within the budget".