More facts emerge on Oduah car scandal

More cans of worms were thrown up  on
Wednesday in Abuja during the public
hearing by the House of
Representatives Committee on Aviation
on the controversial N255m bulletproof
cars purchased by the Nigerian Civil
Aviation Authority.
But the woman at the centre of the
scandal, Ms Stella Oduah, dared the
committee as she again reneged on
her promise to honour an invitation
earlier extended to her.
Her absence however led to a near
disagreement between the Committee
Chairman, Mrs. Nkiruka Onyejeocha, and
a member, Jerry Manwe.
Manwe had complained that the
committee started proceedings without
first clarifying why Oduah, who is the
Minister of Aviation, was absent.
He said, “We adjourned (on Tuesday)to
take the minister today (Wednesday).
Why is she not here?
“She should have been the main issue
today (Wednesday).
“The absence of the minister (Oduah) is
a slap on the face of the House.”
Responding, Onyejeocha argued that the
hearing was not about Oduah alone.
She overruled Manwe and moved on to
hear the officials of the Nigerian
Customs Service, Coscharis and First
Bank Nigeria Plc state their roles in the
purchase of the cars for Oduah by the
NCAA.
The committee chairman later read a
letter from the Ministry of Aviation in
whicn the  minister explained why she
could not make   the public sitting.
Onyejeocha told her colleagues that
the Aviation ministry wrote to inform
the committee that Oduah was on
“transit” from Israel to Nigeria.
In the letter, the minister, who had
allegedly failed to honour 12 invitations
by the House, claimed that she would
arrive in Lagos late on Wednesday and
applied to appear before the
committee on November 4.
• Oduah must appear today, says
committee
But, Onyejeocha directed that the
minister must appear on Thursday
(today).
She said, “If she fails again, we take it
that she does not want to appear. We
are saying this in the spirit of fair
hearing.
“Thursday (today) is sacrosanct and we
will turn in our report whether she
comes or not.”
The committee had on Monday issued
a statement in which it insisted that
the minister must appear before it on
Wednesday.
It warned that it would not hesitate to
take necessary actions against her if she
failed to turn up on Wednesday.
The House spokesman, Zakari
Mohammed, had also told The PUNCH
on Tuesday, that sanctions that could be
imposed on the minister if she failed to
appear before the committee, included
issuing a bench warrant to facilitate her
arrest by security agents.
• Fresh revelations on the deal
But even with her absence, the
committee, the NCS, Coscharis Motors
and First Bank Nigeria Plc made fresh
revelations on the controversial cars.
Among the fresh revelations made
public at the hearing was the
difference in the chassis numbers of the
cars inspected by the committee
members and those in the transaction
documents between the NCAA and
Coscharis.
Another is  how the  Federal Ministry of
Finance and the National Security
Adviser were made to believe that the
two vehicles were for the 18th
National Sports Festival (Eko Games
2012) hosted by Lagos State.
The Customs Service was the first to
blow the lid when it told the
committee that no duty was paid on
the cars because Coscharis obtained a
duty exemption certificate from the
Federal Ministry of Finance.
According to the Customs, the
government lost N10.1m due to the
waiver, which covered 300 vehicles,
including the two controversial
bulletproof cars.
The Deputy Comptroller-General
(Modernisation and Economic Relations),
Mr. Manasa Jatau, who testified before
the panel, disclosed that the Ministry of
Finance granted the waiver after
Coscharis wrote that it wanted to
import 300 assorted vehicles for the
EKO Games.
He added that the “end beneficiary” of
the cars, including the two bulletproof
vehicles was the Lagos State
Government.
However,he hinted that  the waiver was
later used as a cover to import the
bulletproof cars to evade the payment
of import duty.
He revealed that there was also a third
bulletproof car imported by Coscharis.
The Customs chief who did not name
the owner of the third bulletproof car,
added that the office of the NSA issued
a security clearance for the two bought
for Oduah.
Asked whether a waiver granted for a
specific purpose, could be transferred to
a different end-user, he replied, “To the
best of my knowledge, end-user
certificate is not transferable.”
The DCG said, “N10.1m was the duty
payable on the 300 vehicles; but no
duty was paid because there was an
import exemption certificate issued by
the Federal Ministry of Finance.
“The waiver was for a period of one
year.
“The waiver showed there were 300
vehicles for the sports festival, hosted
from November to December, 2012.
“Only three of the vehicles were
bulletproof and the NSA gave security
certificate for their clearance.”
Coscharis Motors was represented at
the hearing by its Chairman, Mr.
Cosmos Maduka, and the Managing
Director, Mr. Josiah Samuel.
The company admitted that it got a
waiver to import vehicles for the games,
saying that “it is the usual practice for
government to approach us to supply
vehicles for major events.”
However, efforts by the committee to
establish how the waiver was used to
cover the bulletproof cars, did not yield
results.
Samuel parried questions and chose
rather to advertise BMW cars to
members at the hearing.
• Coscharis accused of connivance
The committee however accused the
company of conniving with the NCAA to
inflate the cost of the cars. But
Coscharis denied the accusation.
On the price of the cars, Samuel claimed
that the BMWs were “7 Series, B7”
security cars, which were costlier than
their equivalent quoted by
“independent amourers” on the
Internet.
He argued that the cars in question had
factory-fitted armour, as against buying
a plain car before taking it to an
independent firm to rebuild.
The Managing Director stated that the
factory price for the grade of BMW cars
it supplied the NCAA was €418,000,
excluding  other charges.
On how the company gets and utilises
duty waivers, Josiah said most times, the
waivers would come too close to the
date of the event they were meant to
cover.
“So, what we do is that we sign a
Memorandum of Understanding with
government to release the vehicles we
have in our showroom. We then use
the waiver to replace the vehicles we
have supplied”, he added.
But, his response angered Manwe, who
accused Coscharis of committing “fraud.”
Manwe said a quotation he received
from an American firm showed that the
same car sold for N42m.
He said, “We are not fools; you have
been taking us for a ride.
“You imported the cars without paying
duty, why are you selling one for over
N127m? Are your own bulletproof cars
manufactured in the moon.
“You got a waiver to import cars for the
National  Sports Festival, but you ended
up using it to import bulletproof cars
for  the NCAA.
“You have been lying to us. You ripped
off the people of Nigeria through the
NCAA.
“That is the summary of what is before
us here, so what are you saying?”
But, Maduka protested, saying his
company did a legitimate transaction.
He said the whole scandal was
“politically-motivated” for reasons he
could not explain.
Maduka added, “We followed all the
processes required. We sold vehicles to
the NCAA and First Bank financed it.
“We were interviewed by the SSS(State
Security Service), the NSA; we didn’t do
any wrong.”
• More drama
But, more drama played out when the
Aviation Committee’s Sub-Committee
on Inspection, reported that the
armoured cars Coscharis supplied were
different from the ones quoted in its
letter to the NSA.
The committee had visited the Nnamdi
Azikiwe Airport on Tuesday to inspect
the cars.
However, members discovered that the
chassis numbers were different from the
ones quoted in the transaction
documents.
The leader of the inspection team, Mr.
Ahmed Chanchangi, said, “We sighted
the cars at the airport yesterday
(Tuesday).
“The chassis numbers do not correspond
with what you said you supplied. It
looks like Nigeria was shortchanged here
again”, he stated.
However, Maduka disagreed and
insisted that a member of his staff
ought to have accompanied the team to
the airport to ascertain the cars they
inspected.
The discrepancy in the chassis numbers
was left unresolved.
• Our role –First Bank
First Bank which was the financier of
the transaction, confirmed that it
entered into a loan agreement, “not
lease agreement” with the NCAA.
The head of the bank’s Lagos Mainland
branch, which handled the transaction,
Mr. Seyi Ojefeso, recalled how the
NCAA approached the bank for a loan to
purchase vehicles for its management
staff.
Ojefeso claimed that it was possible
that the NCAA “got it mixed up” when
it  described it as a lease agreement.
He explained that the NCAA applied for
a total loan package of N643m to
finance the purchase of  54 vehicles.
For the bulletproof cars, he said there
was a Coscharis proforma invoice
attached to the application in the value
of N255m.
He added, “We offered an auto loan to
the NCAA in May to purchase cars for its
management staff.
“The application was for N643m; we
financed the purchase of the cars based
on the application they submitted to
us.”
The committee observed that the
original request of the NCAA to the
Minister of Aviation was N564m, but
First Bank eventually approved a loan of
N643.
When asked to explain how the
difference came about, Ojefeso said
only the NCAA could answer the
question since N564m was not in the
agency’s communication with the bank.
• FAAN also bought cars for Oduah
The Senate Committee on Aviation also
said  that four of the 202 ‘operational’
cars bought by the Federal Airports
Authority of Nigeria for its top officials
are armoured vehicles.
It added in Abuja on Wednesday, that
two of the armoured vehicles were for
the Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella
Oduah and two for the Managing
Director of FAAN, Mr. George Uriesi.
“FAAN did confirm that among the
operational vehicles they purchased,
four of them are armoured vehicles, two
for the Managing Director and two for
the minister,” the committee Chairman,
Senator Hope Uzodinma, told journalists
on the sidelines of the investigation
into the crises in the aviation industry.
Uriesi had while appearing before the
panel on Tuesday  said the operational
vehicles included two Lexus limousines
and two Toyota  Prado jeeps.
But the FAAN chief did not state who
the armoured vehicles were bought for.
He said the limousines were bought
for N60m each and not N70m being
insinuated.
Uriesi, who said he did not have
details of the cost of the Prado jeeps,
also claimed that the  vehicles were still
in the custody of the bankers wthat
funded their purchase.
He also did not give the names of
the persons / company(ies) that
ordered the vehicles and those they
were meant for.
But Uzodinma told journalists on
Wednesday that Uriesi had confirmed
on oath that FAAN bought operational
vehicles.
He said, “Investigation is still on-going
and it will not be fair for me to preempt
the outcome.
“We told them to go back and put
everything in writing and make
comprehensive statements on all
vehicles purchased. Until they come
back on Monday, we cannot rush into
conclusion.
“The MD FAAN said they did a funding
arrangement with a commercial
bank.This investigation will be a very
deep one so that at the end of the day,
we do a holistic approach and look at
how the sector will be repositioned so
that all anomalies will be corrected.”
The Director-General of the Nigeria
Metereological Agency, Mr. Anthony
Anuforom; and his counterpart in the
Accident and Investigations Bureau,
Captain Muhtar Usman, told the
committee that  they were not involved
in the purchase of armoured vehicles.
The Uzodinma-led committee will also
inspect theN255m bulletproof cars
bought for Oduah by the NCAA before
the end of the week.