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Nigeria: Aviation Fund - EFCC Detectives Storm Europe
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Vanguard (Lagos)
4 July 2008
Posted to the web 4 July 2008
Emma Ujah and Emmanuel Aziken
Lagos
THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has dispatched a team of detectives abroad to track the N19.5 billion Aviation Fund which is now subject of probe in the Senate.
Only on Wednesday, the EFCC arraigned two former Aviation Ministers - Professor Babalola Borisade and Chief Femi Fani-Kayode - as well as Mr. Rowland Iyayi, former Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Authority (NAMA), at the Abuja Chief Magistrate Court on a five-count charge of criminal conspiracy and misappropriation of the fund.
Sources said the decision to track the fund was in line with the conviction of the commission's authorities that a large percentage of the money was taken out of the country. The detectives' destination is Eastern Europe
"We believe that much of the money was taken out of the shores of this nation and we are determined to track the money and obtain concrete evidence on who owns the accounts to which the money was transferred," one source told Vanguard.
The detained Austrian representative of Avastel SA, Mr. George Eider, was said to have given some leads on what happened to the inflated Safe Tower contract sum which was said to have been deliberately increased by N5 billion.
Sources said the name of a former Minister of Finance had been mentioned by those facing trial and that operatives would look at the role the former minister allegedly played in sourcing loans for the project after the Federal Government had approved funds for its implementation.
Particularly, sources said the motive behind the high interest rate involved in the deal would be looked into.
It was gathered that investigators of the commission would examine the transactions of three banks which played key roles in the disbursement of the aviation fund.
Chairman of the EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri, was also said to be out of the country to attend a forum on anti-corruption war where she is expected to make a strong statement on Nigeria's determination to fight corruption with greater vigour, as well as network with anti-corruption experts from others countries on the need to collaborative efforts against money laundering.
Chief Fani-Kayode and Professor Borishade were first arrested on Monday in Abuja by the EFCC moments after they traded blames at the Senate Public Hearing over the utilisation of the N19.5 billion Aviation intervention fund.
Also arrested was a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Mr. Rowland Iyayi.
Among the issues that drew the two former ministers to exchange words was claim by Borishade that he did not expend a kobo from the N6.5 billion fund earmarked for the airport safe tower projects. Fani-Kayode said the money was expended by Borishade before his advent.
The two ministers also disagreed sharply over the claim that Borishade awarded a N506 million consultancy job for the fencing of five of the country's airports.
"The approval for the opening of the Letter of Credit for the Safe Tower Project was 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," Borishade had told the senators.
Fani-Kayode in his submission, however, sharply disagreed with his predecessor in office saying: "What must be clearly understood is that not all this money was made available to me when I got there.
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, Professor Babalola Borishade."
Senate fails to lift secrecy of BASA fund
Meanwhile, the Senate yesterday failed in its scheduled task of unveiling the alleged secrecy behind the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) fund following the failure of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, and the Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, to appear before the Senate Committee on Aviation.
No Due Process cerification for Safe tower projects
The Senate Committee also heard yesterday that due process certification was not made before payment was made for the N6.5 billion safe tower airport projects.
The fund estimated at $60 million in 2006 when the National Civil Aviation Act was enacted, according to revelations at the Senate hearing on the utilisation of the N19.5 billion aviation fund, was shielded from aviation parastatals.
The two ministers were summoned by the Senate Committee to give insight as to reasons why the fund was kept from the aviation parastatals despite the provisions of the law stipulating that the fund be operated by the National Civil Aviation Authority.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Anyim Ude, was, however, hopeful yesterday as he said the Senate would not be deterred from its investigations into the utilisation of the BASA fund.
"We cannot continue to wait for them. The BASA is important because there is million of dollars in the bank and if the money was made available, Nigeria would have had no reason to take a loan from commercial bank with high interest rate which we have paid about N2 billion on as interest," Senator Ude said.
Before the Senate hearing was drawn to an end, the Director-General, Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit, Mr. Emeka Eze, told the Committee that there was no evidence of due process certification before the N6.5 billion was paid to the contractors of the Safe Tower project.
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He said there were no record in his office that the due process certificate was certified by his office.
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