The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has taken over the investigation of the botched Nigeria Air project, championed by Hadi Sirika who is former Minister of Aviation in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
In the last days of the Buhari regime, Mr. Sirika had announced that Nigeria Air had arrived, but it turned out that it was all a ruse. The supposed branded Nigeria Air plane that landed in Abuja, belonged to Ethiopian Airlines, who were said to be partners and managers of the project. This sparked a nationwide debate about the true intention of the former minister.
“It was not a deal that was good for Nigeria. It was a good concept to have a national carrier but it was not a good deal for Nigeria,” said Keyamo.
” The EFCC is investigating the deal to know whether Nigerians were shortchanged. I don’t want to preempt their investigation. The whole composition and the totality of that deal was merely Ethiopian Airlines flying Nigeria Air. It was a foreign airline trying to fly the Nigerian flag.”
He disclosed that the President Bola Tinubu administration has plans to float a new national airline.
Meanwhile Keyamo disclosed that moving the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, back to Lagos will save N1 billion for the nation.
He said the annual cost of FAAN officials travelling back and forth Lagos and Abuja amounted to N10b in Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) and air tickets.
“When I did my Channels TV interview yesterday, I was not briefed about the amount FAAN spent last year alone on DTA (Duty Tour Allowance) for the principal officers who travelled back and forth from Lagos to Abuja almost daily.
“The amount came up to N493,678,620.37. Aside from the air tickets, which I mentioned amounted to N451,058,950.09.
“So, in total, because of insistence on naming Abuja as the headquarters of FAAN (when there are no offices in Abuja to accommodate all the principal officers), FAAN spent close to N1 billion in one year,” he said.
