…ask IGP to take over probe, prosecute offenders

….as Nigeria’s Army seeks recovery of sold helicopters now in US 

The House of Representatives on Tuesday ordered the immediate arrest of an alleged unlicensed auctioneer and NCAT’s Director of Quality Control by the Police in the National Assembly for allegedly providing false information on oath, and the sale of 2 helicopters for 1.2 million dollars.

This is also as the Committee on Public Assets called on the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to take over the investigation of the alleged indiscriminate sale of two helicopters by the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology, NCAT.

The resolution of the Committee on Public Assets came after about five hours of interaction with the management of the College and other relevant bodies.

Recall that in December 2023, the House launched an investigation into the state of public assets in the country.

The committee’s mandate is to recover assets valued at trillions of naira and moribund public assets within and outside Nigeria and to unravel the reasons behind the hurried sale of two helicopters without the approval of the Federal Executive Council days before the end of the Buhari administration in 2023

Present at the Commitee were the management team of NCAT, representatives of the Nigerian Army and others crucial to.

The chairman of the Committee, Ademorin Kuye expressed worries that the two choppers bought at $2.4 billion were sold at $1.2 billion without due process.

“We requested documents of any kind of joint venture, there is no response to that whether you have one or you do not.

“We requested for a list of assets including a comprehensive description and specifications of all your list assets, rented apartments including acquisition dates and methods and the current status and conditions of such Assets. We can not say specifically that you have satisfied all of these requests. Though you tried to answer some of them, your response is not adequate” Hon Kuye said.

The lawmakers also queried the use of an unlicensed auctioneer who failed to provide needed response to enquiries

In his reaction, Musa Alkali, Coordinator of Nigerian Army Aviation said that the request by the Army to make use of the helicopters in the fight against terrorism was turned down, he however demanded that the two helicopters should be recovered.

A member of the committee, Midala Balami, said that the documents presented to the committee were false documents.

[Vanguard]