Minister’s Armoured Cars: Aviation Unions Call For Probe

The Association of
Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Aviation Round Table (ART), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSAN) and National Union of Air Transport Empoyees (NUATE) have joined forces with some human right groups to demand investigation of the purchase of N250 million armoured cars for the Aviation Minister, Mrs Stella Oduah.
A statement credited to the General Secretary, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Mohammed Tukur, said the minister should not only resign but should be prosecuted and called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to take up the matter and investigate it properly.
“I don’t know who gave her the authority to purchase such cars because the man who was in-charge at the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), was not the DG of the NCAA,” Tukur said.
The AON General Secretary said he had received reliable information that the NCAA was broke and training had dwindled.
According to the president, Aviation Round Table (ART) Captain Dele Ore, there are more revelations that will soon be made public against the minister.
“The bubble will soon burst, when she leaves office, everything will come out. If she does not want to resign, she should remain there and lets’ see how the bullet proof vehicles will protect and save her”, he declared.
On his part, the Secretary General of National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Abdulkareem Motajo, alleged that the Aviation Minister had committed a lot of atrocities and should be arrested.
“Asking for her to go is not enough, the Minister has committed many atrocities and many of them have been written in the newspaper but no thing has been done about it”, he stated.
According to ATSSSAN President, Mr Benjamin Okewu, the EFCC should step in and investigate the matter. This is so because there are several other allegations that even in NAMA there have been purchases of many things for the minister and the reckless expenditions by the minister are unacceptable.
It would be recalled that Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), said the bullet proof cars were for operational purposes that would convey important guests as part of security strategy by the authority.