Nigeria arrests ex-air ministers

[Ray D'Avecta]

Two former aviation ministers have been arrested by Nigerian anti-corruption agents investigating the disappearance of $160m to buy radar equipment.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Nigeria arrests ex-air ministers (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7482876.stm)


Anyone else have more inside info?

[Tokunbo]

This Day (Lagos)
1 July 2008
Posted to the web 1 July 2008
Sufuyan Ojeifo
Abuja

Two former Ministers of Aviation, Professor Babalola Borishade and Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, were yesterday arrested by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the controversy trailing the disbursement of the N19.5 billion Aviation Intervention Fund.

They were picked up shortly after yesterday's session of the ongoing public hearing by the Senate Committee on Aviation into the disbursement and application of the fund approved by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the wake of the series of air crashes in the country in 2005 and 2006.


An EFCC source confirmed at 11pm last night that the two former ministers were still with the commission and were being interrogated over the matter.

Also arrested was the former Managing Director of the National Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Mr. Roland Iyayi, who was said to be one of the principal actors at the centre of the N6.5 billion Safe Tower Project in four major airports in the country namely Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano.

Iyayi was also a former Personal Assistant on Technical Matters to Borishade. He was appointed NAMA boss by Borishade but was removed by Obasanjo on the ground of alleged incompetence.

Former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala would have also been arrested yesterday if she had honoured the committee's invitation to appear before it over the Safe Tower Project.

Her lawyers-Streams and Cohen- had written to the committee on her behalf saying the she had some constraints and therefore could not appear.

They said in the letter that they would make available to the committee all information requested.

Okonjo-Iweala was alleged to have been instrumental to the negotiation of the N6.5 billion taken as loan from a bank at an interest of N222 million for the project.

NAMA was the borrower of the N6.5 billion while the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) was the guarantor, a development which had raised the question of propriety of a parastatal of government guaranteeing a loan for another parastatal when there was a supervising ministry.

Borishade, Fani-Kayode and Iyayi were arrested shortly after yesterday's public hearing came to a close at 6.25 pm.

Borishade was the first to make his presentation, followed by former Finance Minister Nenadi Usman and thereafter Fani-Kayode.

Borishade and Fani-Kayode were accosted by EFCC officials in the corridor outside the Senate Hearing Room One as they stepped out.

An EFCC official, who donned a blue native dress made of guinea brocade told Borishade his mission and his (Borishade's) countenance changed.

Fani-Kayode was accosted by two EFCC officials and led out of the National Assembly building into some waiting vehicles outside.

While Borishade and Iyayi were driven away in a white Toyota Hiace bus marked AU 329 YAB, Fani-Kayode was driven away to the commission's headquarters in his black Range Rover marked JH 820 AAA.

Their arrests came on the heels of last week's arrest of the Head of AVSATEL Communication Limited, Mr. George Eider, whose company got the N6.5 billion Safe Tower Project.

The contract was confirmed to have been inflated by N4.5 billion, going by the global best estimate provided by the Technical Consultant to the Senate Committee, Captain Daniel Omale.

Omale had said that at 100 per cent marked-up profit, the project would have cost N2 billion. But the Senate committee holds the view that if the 100 per cent marked up profit had been removed, the project should have cost N1 billion, concluding that the project was inflated by N5.5 billion.

Reports last week had indicated the possibility of arrests of former Aviation Ministers in connection with the bazaar of contracts that were alleged to be grossly inflated.

The stage for the arrest of Borishade, Fani-Kayode and Iyayi was set earlier when members of the Senate committee were treated to a cocktail of disagreements between Borishade and Fani-Kayode over the disbursement of the fund.

Borishade had told the committee that he did not authorise the withdrawal of any amount of money from the Aviation Intervention Fund before he left office.

According to him, "The approval for the opening of the letter of Credit for the Safe Tower Project was the only commitment authorised by me in respect of the Intervention Fund before I was redeployed on 7th November 2006. No withdrawal was made from this facility before I left."

But Fani-Kayode who succeeded him faulted him, saying: "What must be clearly understood is that not all this money was made available to me when I got there."

Borishade, however, insisted the contracts followed due process because due process certification was obtained before the contract was signed.


He also said he was aware that N2billion was released for the payment of the severance package of retired aviation workers.

But speaking on the N6.5 billion loan for the Safe Tower Project, Borishade said: "It was clearly understood that the fund was not a grant but a loan which would be paid back through subsequent budgetary provisions by the benefiting parastatals in accordance with their allocations from the Fund."

He said he set up a Task Team to follow up with the Federal Ministry of Finance, listing members of the team to include (former) MD, NAMA, Iyayi; (former) MD of FAAN, Muhammad Yusuf; DG NCAA, Rep. Captain Kiddie Dare; DG NIMET, Rep. Alhaji Lamba and Technical Adviser, Remi Olumuyiwa.

According to him, "The responsibilities of the Task Team were the coordination of the requirements of each parastatal; and defending the estimates with the budget office," adding, "The figure (of) N19.5 billion was the product of their defence with the Federal Budget Office."

He said the tentative allocation formula approved by the Budget Office were FAAN (N9.06 billion); NAMA (N7.30 billion); NCAA (N2.20 billion); NIMET (N0.94 billion), totaling N19.5 billion.

Borishade said the Ministry of Finance got an approval of former President Obasanjo to source for the N19.5 billion fund from the National Resource Fund (N13.5 billion) and from a consortium of banks (N6.5 billion).

He said the fund was directed to be domiciled in FAAN by the former president on the recommendation of the Ministry of Finance vide a letter dated June 8, 2006.

According to him, "The first installment of N2 billion was disbursed directly to FAAN specifically for the payment of severance benefits of the staff of FAAN and that was the only amount released before I left office as the Minister of Aviation."

He added that the funding for the implementation of the Safe Tower Project was from the N7.3 billion approved for NAMA as earlier defended in the Budget Office.

He also told the committee that Obasanjo had approved in a letter dated August 15, 2005 selective tendering for procurement of safety critical projects in the airports, pointing out that five companies participated in the bidding process, namely Global Aero Enterprises BV of Netherlands (Euro 46,620,500.00) with a completion period of 15 months; F. Kolman Nig. Limited $60,850,000.00 plus N260 million with a completion period of 12 months; and Messrs Vaisalla, Messrs Frequentis and AVsatel Ges for Euro 40,350,947.00 plus N303,908,683.20 with a completion period of eight months.

But in his own account, Fani-Kayode said: "What happened was that before I got into that office, a substantial part of that money had been sourced and had been spent by my predecessor in office, Prof. Borishade.

"Consequently a total sum of N8.5billion had been sourced and approximately N8.4billion had been spent from that sum before I came into that office.

"When I assumed my duties as the Minister in November 2006, the sum of N11billion (which was the balance of the intervention fund) was now released to me from the National Resource Development Account by President Obasanjo for application.

"Apart from that, I should mention here that there was a further N2billion which was essentially not part of the intervention fund but it was also jointly administered by the Ministry and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

"This money was a soft loan from the Rivers State Government and it was given to FAAN directly and specifically for the rehabilitation of the runway of Port Harcourt Airport well before I assumed duties as Minister of Aviation.

"Out of this N2billion, approximately N350million had already been spent on other things outside the Port Harcourt runway before I came to the Ministry.

"Therefore when I got to the Ministry, I was given the responsibility of administering N11billion (Intervention Fund) plus a further N1,633,000,000 (soft loan from Rivers State Government for Port Harcourt Airport runway).

"The records will show that out of the N11billion (Intervention Fund) that I was asked to administer, I only released approximately N3.8billion and out of the N1,633,000,000 (Rivers State Government loan) I only released N1.5billion.

"The records show that consequently by the time I left the Ministry approximately N7.2billion was left in the intervention fund account and a further N133million was left out of the N1,633,000,000 that I was given for the Port Harcourt Airport runway.

"I cannot be held responsible for the N8.4billion that was spent before I came in or for what happened to or what was spent out of the approximately N7.2billion that I left behind.

"I can only be held responsible and accountable for the approximately N3.8billion intervention fund and N1.5billion Rivers State Government soft loan that I administered on clearly identifiable projects and items which were highlighted as projects to be funded by the intervention fund well before I got there.

"I want to reiterate that for every contract that I awarded the balance of the money was left in the account of the intervention fund for those contracts to be fully paid for upon completion. I also want to repeat that every contract and every penny that we spent went through due process."

A member of the committee, Senator Okechukwu Obiora, had said the committee would be right to say that claims by Avsatel Ges MB H Vienna, Austria, Vienna and Abuja that it partnered two other bidders to get the contract were false.

[LostAndFound]

"Boris,the shady":p was very famous and unpopular in this forum.

What they have done, if it is indeed true, is unforgivable and just a tip of the iceberg:sad:

[Shunanny]

Nigeria...nada
this is chciken change compared to the $16.5billion lost to energy...nada nada.....sad but true:(:(:(

[mayotte]

The BBC is reporting that Femi Fani-Kayode and Babalola Borishade have now been charged by the EFCC:

Nigerian anti-corruption agents have charged two ex-aviation ministers after $160m for radar equipment went missing.
Femi Fani-Kayode and Babalola Borishade denied misappropriating money from an emergency fund set up to improve air safety after a series of fatal crashes.
Following the arrest of the two and a third official on Monday, the Senate passed a resolution to stop witnesses at parliamentary probes being detained.
Senators argued that the arrests could frighten off other potential witnesses.
Nigeria's parliament is conducting multiple investigations into alleged massive corruption during the government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Cash boost for air sector
Roland Iyayi, the former managing director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, was also charged.
In his testimony, Mr Borishade said that the amounts of money concerned had been exaggerated.
The equipment was supposed to help improve Nigeria's woeful air safety record after several fatal crashes.
Mr Borishade was sacked as aviation minister after a 2006 crash at the airport in the capital, Abuja, which killed 97 people, including the spiritual leader of Nigeria's Muslims.
Mr Fani-Kayode, a spokesman for Mr Obasanjo who left office last year, then replaced him.
Last week, an Austrian aviation contractor was arrested after giving evidence.
More than 200 people were killed in two crashes in 2005.


The Senate has tried to stop other witnesses being detained :ugh:. It doesn't matter if they may be guilty of stealing millions then :*

Boris says that the sums of money have been exaggerated - maybe just a few tens of millions of $$$ of the Nigerian people's money stolen rather than hundreds of millions eh? :}:}:}

As usual, even if they are found guilty, nothing will happen and they'll go free to spend the money they've plundered :eek: