Prior to purchasing the brand-new presidential aircraft for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Assembly did not give its approval.
An online news site reported at the end of June that a German bank had given the Nigerian government an Airbus A330 aircraft.
PREMIUM TIMES reports that the aircraft had been seized by a German bank from an unidentified Arabian businessman who had reportedly failed to pay the bank hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.
The online news platform said that officials from the Presidency had “kept their lips shut” about the planned purchase of a new aircraft for the Presidential Air Fleet.
Additionally, the Presidency has not issued a formal statement regarding the issue since then.
The aircraft’s actual cost has not yet been determined. According to a previous Premium Times report, the government was negotiating to acquire it for $100 million, but it was unable to determine the actual purchase price.
However, when asked about the issue during a plenary session of the upper legislative chamber, Senate President Godswill Akpabio stated that the request to purchase the aircraft had not yet been presented to the parliament, but that members would consider and approve it once it was.
Both the Nigerian people and the president are important to us. When it came to the bid to acquire the presidential aircraft, Akpabio had stated at the time, “We will approve things that will benefit the Nigerian people.”
According to Akpabio, the National Assembly was being “blackmailed” over the issue: But I can tell you that when you hear stories like the Malawi vice president’s death caused by a defective plane and the Iranian president’s death caused by a defective plane; At the ocean, we should never sit and allow such things to happen. It cannot be.
The Senate is extremely accountable. The National Assembly is exceptionally accountable. We will investigate issues that will support the country’s governance.
“Regardless of anticipatory blackmail, because those individuals are well aware that something similar may occur in the future; and the Senate will investigate it if it is necessary.
He made a pointed statement, “But there is nothing like that before us now.”
Until the recent controversy over the Chinese company’s seizure of three Nigerian aircraft on an order from a French court, nothing was said about the matter.
