The House committee had investigated Mrs. Oduah after she directed the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authroity, NCAA, an agency under her supervision to purchase two bulletproof cars at a cost beyond her official approval limit as minister.
At its plenary Thursday, the House approved a recommendation asking President Goodluck Jonathan to “review the continued engagement” of Mrs. Oduah.
The House also called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to further investigate other officials involved in the scam and the car supplier, Coscharis Motors.
In an immediate reaction, Mrs. Oduah said she was “disappointed and shocked” at the decision. She said the lawmakers brushed aside a “deluge” of evidence to implicate her.
“We are shocked and disappointed that in spite of the deluge of representations and evidences provided by the Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah and all invited stakeholders on the matter, the House would reach conclusions that have only confirmed that there was a hidden Agenda in the entire exercise from the beginning,” a statement by the minister’s office said.
"We stand by our earlier submissions to the committee that Due Process was followed in the procurement of the vehicles by the NCAA."
“Evidence also shows that the cars in question were included as a line item under the “safety and Security vehicles” sub- head in the Appropriation Act.
The position of the committee that this was not included in the budget is spurious as clear evidence exists in the Appropriation Act as stated above.”
She said the action of the committee and the House were “pre- medicated with the sole aim of casting aspersion on the person and office of the Aviation Minister.”
No comments:
Post a Comment