Fg May Sack Workers In NCAA, Others Over Bulletproof Cars -

THERE are indications that following
the revelation of purchase of two
bullet proof cars for the Minister of
Aviation, Stella Oduah, by the
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority
(NCAA) heads may begin to roll in
the agency soon.
Apart from NCAA, which is the prime
target, staff of other agencies in the
sector like the Federal Airports
Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the
Nigerian Airspace Management
Agency (NAMA) are not free from
the eagle eyes of investigators as the
government is said to be suspecting
that they leaked the information to
the media.
At the headquarters of NCAA
yesterday at the Murtala Mohammed
Airport (MMA), Lagos, workers were
seen discussing the development in
low tones.
Since the issue was blown open by
the media last week, several
Nigerians have reacted angrily to it
by describing the amount involved
as outrageous and fraudulent. Some
of the analysts also called for the
immediate removal of the minister
on the ground that the purchase of
the expensive security cars did not
follow due process.
NCAA has been in debts for several
months just as it was revealed that
the luxury cars were bought on
credit from Coscharis Auto Company
while First Bank Plc stood as a
guarantor for the agency.
Besides, following the
embarrassment the revelation of the
controversial deal has caused the
Federal Government, the Director
General of the NCAA, Captain Fola
Akinkuotu, announced plans to
launch an investigation to unravel
those behind the official information
leakage.
Akinkuotu while speaking at a press
conference in Abuja described the
information leakage as criminal,
saying the action posed danger to a
sensitive government agency like the
NCAA.
The declaration of the NCAA DG to
set up a committee to probe the
information leakage has created
tension within the agency as workers
who spoke but did not want their
names in print, expressed the fear
that the management may use the
opportunity to sack innocent people
or those they found not to be
blindly loyal to them.
Meanwhile, Media Rights Agenda
(MRA) and the Public and Private
Development Centre (PPDC) have
submitted a joint Freedom of
Information(FOI) request to the
NCAA asking for detailed
information on the procurement
records for the purchase of the
bullet-proof.
In the letter addressed to Akinkuotu,
MRA and PPDC asked for the
procurement records for the
purchase by the NCAA of two BMW
760 Li HSS vehicles with chassis
numbers WBAHP41050DW68032 and
WBAHP41010DW68044.
Specifically, the groups requested
for copies of the procurement and
contract records for the purchase of
the vehicles, including: evidence of
budgetary allocation for the
procurement process; the
procurement plan for the purchase
of the vehicles; evidence of
advertisements of the planned
purchase in various newspapers, the
NCAA website, among others.
And as the Senate resumes plenary
today after a two-week break, there
are no indication that the crises
rocking the aviation industry would
be among issues on its agenda.
A close source told The Guardian
that the initial plan to quiz Oduah
and chief executives of Aviation
parastatals over the state of the
nation’s aviation sector, is not listed
in today’s Order Paper.
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/
index.php/news/426-national/136345-fg-
may-sack-workers-in-ncaa-others-over-
bulletproof-cars

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.10