Oduahgate: NAMA official says Limousines belong to Overland

 

THE Nigerian Airspace Management Agency said on Wednesday that the four limousines parked at the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria site at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, belonged to a non-scheduled airline operator, Overland Airways. A senior official of NAMA told our correspondent that the cars had nothing to do with the airspace management agency.

The official, who pleaded not to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the subject, said that the Ministry of Aviation was not the owners of the luxury vehicles.

An online medium, SaharaReporters, had reported on Monday that NAMA purchased four Toyota Tundra and four stretch limousine vehicles for the embattled aviation minister, Stella Oduah.

It said the vehicles were in addition to the two armoured cars purchased for Oduah by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority at an allegedly inflated cost of N255m, a development that had sparked public outrage.

But the source at the airspace agency said, “NAMA has nothing to do with those vehicles. They are owned by a concessionaire who also is an owner of a chartered airline. The cars are used for conveying VIPs by Overland Airways. You may confirm from them.”

When our correspondent visited the airport on Tuesday, he was stopped from gaining entry by security operatives at the main gate leading to the reported location where the vehicles were said to be parked.

The NAMA official described the report as false, stressing that the cars were used to transport passengers that patronised the carrier’s services.

The source said, “The cars are owned by a private operator who was given concessions to move VIPs to different locations, and for emphasis this is what is on ground. The cars are not owned by NAMA. The Ministry of Aviation has enough cars to transport the minister and they do not include those limousines.”

But an official of Overland, Mr. Monday Ukoha, said that he had no idea about the cars and who owned them.

“I don’t have that information and I don’t know about that,” he told our correspondent.

When asked who in the company could speak on the parked Limousines, Ukoha said, “I won’t know now. Let me call you back. The truth is that I don’t know about it and if I knew about it then I would have been able to direct you to the person that can give you the information you seek.”

The spokesperson for NAMA, Mr. Supo Atobatele, in a statement had described the reports that the agency owned the luxury vehicles as “frivolous, malicious and mischievous.”

He said, “We hereby make it categorically clear to the unsuspecting public that this evil story, as being promoted is patently false in its entirety and is calculated to put the agency and the office of the minister into disrepute.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the said Limousines belong to a concessionaire who is running a VIP shuttle service for non-scheduled operators.”

He said the vehicles were never on the inventory of NAMA and that the agency was not engaged in ground services but air navigation service provider.

- The Guardian

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