Who approved Oduah’s N225m bulletproof car purchase?

The controversy surrounding the purchase of
two armoured BMW 760 Li cars for N225m for
the use of the Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella
Oduah, deepened on Sunday, with conflicting
information on who gave approval for the
transaction.
While some sources alleged that President
Goodluck Jonathan might have approved the
purchase of the vehicles for the minister by the
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, our
correspondents could not get an independent
confirmation from the Presidency as the
officials chose to
It was gathered that neither the minister nor
the NCAA could have singlehandedly approved
the transaction without recourse to other
approving authorities.
A highly placed source said the Ministerial
Tenders’ Board might have given approval for
the contract, instead of the Bureau of Public
Procurement, which is responsible for
scrutinising and verifying the cost of public
procurement contracts.
Usually, the BPP monitors the prices of
tendered items and keep a national database
of standard prices.
However, a top official of BPP, who spoke to
one of our correspondents on the condition of
anonymity, said the purchase did not need to
pass through the BPP process because the
amount involved was not up to the N250m
benchmark, except the Aviation ministry
elected to subject it to the process.
The source said, “It is not all procurement that
comes to the BPP. They don’t have to go
through BPP at that level to purchase the
vehicles except they so elected. That level of
purchase can be handled by the Ministerial
Tenders’ Board.
“What the BPP can do on procurements that
do not pass through it is to audit them.
However, I don’t think that this particular
procurement needs to be subjected to an audit
process.”
The Director-General, BPP, Mr. Emeka Eze,
was, however, evasive when the issue was
raised with him on Sunday, saying that he
could not confirm whether the purchase of the
vehicles was subjected to the agency’s due
process.
“I am not in the office and I don’t have
information on it with me. You know that we
have over 500 agencies that we oversee. So,
on a Sunday like this, I will not have all the
information except I am in the office,” he said.
An online news agency, Eagelonline.com ,
quoted the Chief Executive Officer, Armouring
LLC, Mr. Dave Simmons, as saying that the
price of both cars, including the cost of
purchase, armouring and delivery to Nigeria,
could not have been more than N76m.
An online news medium, SaharaReporters, had
last week reported that the minister forced one
of the parastatals under her, the NCAA, to buy
two bulletproof cars for her use.
It was reported that the armoured BMW cars,
valued at about N127m each, were delivered
to the minister in August.
Documents obtained by the medium showed
that the transaction for the purchase of the
vehicles started in June.
After initial denials, the Special Assistant
(Media) to the Minister of Aviation, Mr. Joe
Obi, who confirmed the development
exclusively to our correspondent on
Wednesday, said the vehicles were purchased
to protect the minister from some external
threats.
He said, “Yes, it is true that some security
vehicles were procured for the use of the office
of the honourable minister in response to the
clear and imminent threat to her personal
security and life following the bold steps she
took to reposition the sector.
“When she came on board as the minister, she
inherited a lot of baggage in terms of the
concession and lease agreements in the
sector, which were clearly not in the interest of
the government and people of Nigeria.
“And so, she took bold steps and some of
these agreements were reviewed and some
were terminated, and these moves disturbed
some entrenched interests in the sector, and
within this period, she began to receive some
imminent threats to her life; therefore, the need
for the vehicles.
“It should be noted that these vehicles are not
personal vehicles and were not procured in the
name of the honourable minister; they are
utility vehicles and are for the office of the
minister, and if she leaves the office, she will
not be taking the vehicles along with her.”
However, on Friday, the Director-General,
NCAA, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, said the cars
would be used to convey international
dignitaries who came to the country on official
visits.
He said aviation was a global industry and the
NCAA, as the regulator of the industry in the
country, very often played host to dignitaries
from international civil aviation bodies.
He said it was customary to convey the
minister and the visiting foreign dignitaries in
security vehicles whenever they were in
Nigeria.
“It must be noted that during such visitations,
the security of members of the delegation is
the sole responsibility of the host country. The
vehicles are, therefore, in the pool of the NCAA
for these special assignments and are
available at the NCAA office and can be shown
to you,” Akinkuotu said.
He announced on Friday that the agency was
searching for the person who allegedly leaked
the information concerning the purchase of the
vehicles to the media, because the Federal
Government was concerned about how the
information got to the public domain, noting
that whoever leaked it had committed a
criminal offence.