An anti-corruption watchdog led by a
former legislator, Dino Melaye, has
given Nigeria's Minister of Aviation,
Stella Oduah 72 hours to resign from
office.
The ultimatum follows revelations by
SaharaReporters that she arm-twisted
a cash-strapped agency in the aviation
ministry to purchase two armored
BMW 760 Li cars at highly inflated
prices.
Mr. Melaye told SaharaReporters that
his group plans to embark on a series
of actions aimed at forcing President
Goodluck Jonathan to fire Mrs. Oduah
as well as return the $1.6 million to
the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority,
which was forced to buy the cars.
A spokesperson for Mrs. Oduah today
owned up to the ownership of the two
cars after SaharaReporters provided
documentation of the transaction on
its website on Tuesday.
Mr. Melaye said the purchase of the
vehicles was done in violation of
various rules and laws guiding such
high-level procurement by government
officials, particularly the monetiazation
policy of the federal government from
which the minister was not exempt.
Among the plans, he said he will be in
court next Tuesday to force the
Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission to prosecute the Minister.
In addition, a coalition of anti-
corruption activists will picket the
Aviation Ministry next week in an effort
to force President Jonathan to remove
her from office.
With reference to the cost of the
vehicles, Mr. Melaye described them as
“unconscionable,” recalling that the
Speaker of the House of
Representatives also purchased two
Armored Mercedes Benz S-600 B7
grade armored cars a year ago for less
than $800, 000.
He also disclosed that he had
requested for quotations from
Germany that show that the vehicles
actually cost less than $200,000 each.
Even then, he stressed, the Minister has
no right to purchase the vehicles for
her personal use.
He reminded President Jonathan that
former President Olusegun Obasanjo
or his immediate boss, late Umaru
Yar'adua would have fired Mrs. Oduah
since the scandal broke.
Meanwhile, aviation officials have
disputed the version of Mrs. Oduah
story that she was using the vehicle to
protect herself against powerful
enemies opposed to her in the
ministry. A source told
SaharaReporters that Mrs. Oduah has
not used the vehicles for official
purposes since they were taken to her
home in Victoria Garden City (VGC) in
Lagos. The source stated that there are
several exotic cars purchased for the
Minister in VGC if the EFCC or the
police care to raid the place. The
source also claimed that Mr. Oduah is
building a hotel in VGC worth N3.5
billion from proceeds of kickbacks
received from the airport remodeling
projects scattered across the country.
The source further stated that Mr.
Cosmas Maduka of Coscharis Group
Limited, the supplier of the used 2008
model armored cars, might have given
the minister and Mr. J. D.
Nkemakolam, the former acting
Director-General of Nigeria Civil
Aviation Authority (NCAA) who carried
out the purchase up to $700,00 as
kickback from the car purchase.
Mrs. Oduah is the former co-chair of
Mr. Jonathan’s main presidential
campaign outfit, Neighbor-2-
Neighbor. She is not expected to face
any retribution from the president who
has recently declared corruption in his
government to be “exaggerated.”
