The Presidency on Thursday promised
that President Goodluck Jonathan will
not cover up the embattled Minister of
Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah, on the
N255m bulletproof cars bought for her
by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.
Special Adviser to the President on
Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak,
made the Presidency’s position known
in an exclusive interview with our
correspondent.
But despite the assurances from the
Presidency, Nigerian lawyers said they
had no confidence in the ability of the
probe panels and committees set up to
bring the minister to book if found
guilty.
Gulak told Saturday PUNCH that the
position of the President remained that
whoever is found wanting, no matter
how highly placed, would be sanctioned
appropriately.
He said if Jonathan planned a cover-up
for the embattled minister, he would
not have bothered to query her and
constitute an administrative probe panel
to investigate the matter.
The presidential aide added that the fact
that the National Assembly was also
investigating the matter showed the
seriousness the government attached to
the issue.
He, therefore, appealed to all
stakeholders to wait for the three-man
administrative panel to conclude its
assignment next week and see what the
President will do based on the report
before forming their opinions on the
issue.
Gulak said, “How can people be accusing
the President of planning to cover up
the minister?
“If he had planned a cover-up for her,
he would not have bothered to query
her. If he wanted to do cover up, the
President would not have constituted a
probe panel to investigate the matter.
“I can tell you authoritatively that
President Jonathan will not cover up
anybody.
“We should all wait for the outcome of
the panel and see what the President
will do. What I know is that he will not
hesitate to sanction anybody found
wanton, no matter how highly placed.
But, lawyers who spoke to Saturday
PUNCH on Thursday said all the
committees set up by both the National
Assembly and the Presidency were not
necessary, saying the job should be left
to anti-corruption agencies.
According to Mr. Bamidele Aturu, a
lawyer, the committees whether by the
Presidency or the House of Assembly
constitute a waste of resources and
time.
He said the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission and the
Independent and Corrupt Practices
Commission ought to take up the
investigation instead of the media show
or soap opera that the committees were
engaged in.
He said the minister should have saved
the President the embarrassment that
her continued stay in office had caused
rather than going before the
committee to give what clearly was no
more than an attempt to rationalise the
indefensible.
Another lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, said the
whole investigation by the House of
Assembly and the Presidency was
diversionary, adding that the
committees were only blowing hot air.
He said the Presidency should have
directed the EFCC and ICPC to
investigate the matter. ‘’Let criminal
investigation commence and if a case is
established against her, let prosecution
follow,’’ he added.
He described the minister’s defence as
hogwash, an afterthought and an
untenable pretext for the unpardonable
act of squandering public funds by her
ministry and the department which her
ministry supervised.
He said the issue was not whether the
vehicles were meant for her personally
but the fact that under her watch the
vehicles were bought at outrageous
price and the purchase did not follow
due process.
‘’The NCAA was not established to buy
armoured vehicles. Are they carrying
money,’’ he queried, adding that
previous committees on corrupt
allegations did not yield any positive
results.
Similarly, another lawyer, Mallam Yusuf
Alli (SAN), said he was not sure that the
investigation would produce any
meaningful result because some of the
legislators carrying out the probe are
not ‘clean’.
Alli, who spoke with one of our
correspondents in a telephone interview
on Thursday, said the minister should
have taken the high road by resigning at
the initial stage.
He said, “My thesis is that if it had been
a country in which we have high
morality and decency among public
officials, we won’t even have to go to all
these levels. The concerned official
would have quietly resigned and saved
all of us these exposé. But we are in a
country where the culture of resignation
even in the face of the most startling
scandal is totally absent.
“It is as if we are obtuse to all things
that are decent and proper. I said I
hope anything comes of the sitting
because in the same House of
Representatives, there are few
members facing serious criminal
allegations. These sets of people are the
ones probing someone else. It is the
pot calling the kettle black. Anybody
who wants to launch a moral crusade
must be clean.”
Asked if resignation would have been
enough to make the scandal go away,
Alli said if the minister had taken that
step, she would have retained some
level of rectitude.
Also, the Acting National Coordinator,
Committee for Democracy and Rights of
the People, Mr. Saka Wahid, said it was
shameful that past probes by the
President Goodluck Jonathan
administration had amounted to
nothing.
Describing public probes as a waste of
taxpayers’ funds, CDRP alleged that the
Presidency was shielding Oduah
In a telephone interview on Thursday,
the group said, “Would the Presidency
claim not to know that the cars were
brought for the minister in the first
place? It is obvious that she would have
announced the purchase of the cars
gleefully to the President and glasses
would have been clinked over it.”
“Who is deceiving who? What is the
outcome of all the probes in the past?
Was any culprit ever brought to justice?
Nigerians are wiser.”
An online publication, Sahara Reporters,
had also stated that the committee
seemed reluctant to ask Oduah hard
questions.
It quoted a member of an anti-
corruption group who witnessed the
session as saying “Why were they not
grilling Ms. Oduah on how her
spokesman, Joe Obi, could have issued a
statement on such a sensitive issue
without clearing it with her? Why would
he say the cars were purchased for the
minister’s safety and security, and now
she’s suddenly claiming that they were
bought for foreign delegates visiting the
ministry? And there is the most
important question that any serious
committee should ask: Why did she
authorise the spending of nearly
$800,000 to buy each car when the real
price tag is not up to $200,000?”
“The source said that, unfortunately,
“oversight committees of the National
Assembly have a reputation for letting
corrupt government officials get off the
hook in exchange for payoffs.”
Oduah had appeared before the House
of Representatives Committee on
Aviation on Thursday where she denied
being the owner of the controversial
N255m bulletproof cars purchased by
the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.
Before her appearance, there were
fresh revelations on the scandal in the
ministry on Wednesday. Part of these
revelations was that Coscharis Motors
which imported the armoured cars failed
to pay duty on the vehicles to the
Nigerian Customs Service.
It was also discovered that both 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.
According to the Customs, the
government lost N10.1m due to the
waiver for the two bulletproof cars.
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