ODUAHGATE: We may order arrest of Aviation Minister – House of Reps

ODUAHGATE: We may order arrest of
Aviation Minister – House of Reps
on october 27, 2013 at 2:18 am in news
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.