Diezani jet scandal: Reps uncover second aircraft

 

According to The Punch, fresh revelations indicated on Tuesday that Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, maintained a second jet.

The jet, a  Global Express XRS plane, is  allegedly chartered specifically for her private and official trips overseas.

A return trip on  the  XRS plane is said to cost taxpayers €600,000.

The   jet  is different from the Challenger 850, which the House of Representatives said gulped N10 billion  in the last two years to fly the minister.

Investigation by showed that the House Committee on Public Accounts stumbled on the second jet in the course of the ongoing probe into the N10 billion expenditure on Challenger 850.

Findings also showed that the owners of Challenger 850 might have fled the country  shortly after the House ordered an investigation into the transaction between them and  Alison-Madueke.

It was gathered that the aircraft owners reportedly became jittery after the committee  declared its plan to summon them to assist in the investigation.

Asked to comment on the issue, the Chairman of the committee, Mr. Solomon Olamilekan, said that  he was “shocked by the  latest information.”

“We have heard that the owners of the Challenger have hurriedly left the country. The information is just reaching the committee; but, we are still holding our preliminary meetings,” he stated.

Olamilekan, who confirmed that the committee had uncovered a second jet, added that they were   trying to establish how many trips it made outside the country.

“We are still holding our preliminary meetings. We have to put all the facts together and agree on the mode of the hearing first.

“The question on  when to invite the minister will come after the meetings. We are still meeting.”

However, a document our correspondent obtained in Abuja on Tuesday, indicated that Alison-Madueke flew  in Global Express XRS on two occasions in 2011.

She chartered the same jet twice in 2013 on a return trip bill of €600,000 per trip.

For example, on March 21, 2011, she flew to London with the jet from  the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

On board the jet with her were two people, Imotimi Agama and Haruna Momoh.

The aircraft returned to Nigeria from London on March 23, conveying the same passengers.

Another trip on March 9, 2013 departed the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos  en route to London.

The passengers were Alison-Madueke, Abubakar Fari and Momoh. The jet  returned to Nigeria on March 13 with the same passengers.

In Abuja, lawmakers  are asking how a serving minister raised the money to charter jets for overseas trips at the expense of the taxpayers.

One of them, who asked not to be named said, “Nigerians deserve to know which law authorises  this type of  extravagance.

“Under which budgetary sub-head has she been chartering jets for her personal use?

“Where is the law that authorises a government minister to be flying around the world in chartered private jets?

“You are going to London, why did you not not use the British Airways or any other international airline?”

It was further learnt that those who accompanied Alison-Madueke on the trips would also be invited by the committee to assist with the investigation.

Alison-Madueke is accused of spending about €500,000   monthly to maintain the first  aircraft.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation  had on Monday denied the allegation but said it had   the legal right  to own or charter an aircraft for its operations.

“This practice is common and acceptable in the local and international business environment in which it operates. There is nothing prohibiting the NNPC from owning or chartering an aircraft,” the NNPC had said in a  statement by its Acting Group General Manager,  Public Affairs Division, Omar Ibrahim.