Aviation Minister, Oduah, Named In Multi Billion Naira Scam at FAAN
Font size: 01/05/2012 14:31:00
Aviation minister, Stella Oduah Aviation minister, Stella Oduah, has been named in a string of scams,
running into billions of Naira at the Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria ( FAAN).

Pointblanknews.com sources disclosed that some of the corrupt
practices allegedly perpetrated under the nose and with the active
connivance of Oduah includes the illegal conversion of over N390
million revenue of FAAN for "renovation of toilets at the Murtalla
Mohammed International airport MMIA"

Other scams are N40 Billion airport remodelling programme, her per
project, which has no budgetary provision, N228 million approved for
the service of two power generating sets, N140 Million approved, and
collected for staff training that never held, and an alleged N1
billion lodged under phony circumstances at Chase Bank.

.The payment was due from a advertising concessionnaire -AfroMedia.
The deal was allegedly carried out without following due process of
approvals from the ministry or the Federal executive council which
would normally approve spendings above 50 million naira .In order to
cover up the fraud, the concessionnaire was mandated to pay directly
the revenue due to FAAN to another company for the renovation claiming
in it's books that it was a corporate social responsibility project.

However the lid blew open when Afro media was requested to pay over
one billion naira due to the agency by the commercial department of
FAAN, and the company claimed to have made a part payment to a third
party for renovation of toilets, in a deal "unknown"to the management,
but reportedly approved by the MD.George Uriesi.

This deal was against legal advice from the General Manager Legal
department who wrote a memo to the Management denouncing the
deal,asking the agency to recorver the amount from AfroMedia ,the
organization however kicked against any double payment saying the
project was not a corporate social responsibility project but a
payment to the agency.

AfroMedia ,a quoted company on the Nigerian stock Exchange has
consistently posted a loss to it's shareholders in the last three
years.

Another deal under investigation was the refurbishing of three
generators at the abuja airport for the sum ofN 228million naira,
which is N76 m apiece.a deal which attracted an audit query from the
internal audit department.

The management approved the refurbishment of the generators by Julius
Berger Nigeria, despite a Quotation to supply a new generator of same
capacity forN 55million from John Holt, a reputable vendor in abuja.

Pointblanknews.com however learnt that despite the refurbishment, the
nations international airport has continued to witness blackouts to
the utter embarrassment of aviation passengers.One of such which
occurred on the 21 st April is now subject of a probe in the National
Assembly.


The management of FAAN has also been accused of a phony deal in the
payment of $840 ,000 (about N140 Million ), to an organization
Travelco based in South Africa for training of staff of the agency.The
allegation is that the training was never held despite the payment
while the amount was yet to be recorvered.

Sources close to FAAN confirmed that the agency was linked to the
Managing Director ,and stakeholders wondered while the training in
South Africa for the huge amount when the agency had a training deal
with an organization in the US A for free.

Also catching the attention of the anti corruption agency is the
alleged siphoning of over a billion naira by some staffers of the
organization through a private Chase Bank account said to belong to a
California based Nigerian simply reffered to as Maurice .

The EFCC is said to be relying on bilateral agreement with the US
authorities to assist in investigating the series of payment into this
account said to be suspicious income from corruption .


The bigger deal which may give the agency hard nut to crack is the N40
billion airport remodeling programme which is being directly handled
by the minister without any budgetary provision in the 2011 budget.

The remodeling was allegedly being financed from yet unknown sources
but sources told Pointblanknews.com that the CBN based Bilateral
services account" BASA" may have been depleted by the Minister to
finance the so called remodeling which are being implemented without
appropriation and due process certification by the relevant
authorities.

The Minister who is a close ally of President Jonathan is said to be
banking on the relationship to stave off any backlash from the anti
corruption agencies. An aviation ministry source said the project was
to boost the image of the Nigeria government in the eyes of world
hence the"hues and cries over following due process is irrelevant .The
Minister is eager to achieve so why the talk of not following due
process"

http://pointblanknews.com/new/exclusive/4224-aviation-minister-oduah-named-in-multi-billion-naira-scam-at-faan.html

i love this country .things just dey happen anyhow.second base o jare.i just dey laugh

There is no doubt that d system we run encourages corruption and it wud be hard to find a cabinet member who is clean;but in dis case I suspect vendetta because dis woman has bn doing fairly well in d ministry;so until these corruption allegations ar proved,it shd b treated wt a lot of caution

i wonder why this lady is still in her post. what is the retardeen doing about all these?

52. SEA PETROLEUM & GAS CO. LTD N1,019,571,609.00

SEA PETROLEUM & GAS CO. LTD is owned by the present Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah. Since her company has been indicted, does she still have moral justification to remain in govt

http://www.seapetrol.com/staffmgt.html

Is this not conflict of interest? i voted for Retardeen not PDP, u see ur life

Demdem: i wonder why this lady is still in her post. what is the retardeen doing about all these?

52. SEA PETROLEUM & GAS CO. LTD N1,019,571,609.00

SEA PETROLEUM & GAS CO. LTD is owned by the present Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah. Since her company has been indicted, does she still have moral justification to remain in govt

http://www.seapetrol.com/staffmgt.html

Is this not conflict of interest? i voted for Retardeen not PDP, u see ur life

If they relieved everyone because of every allegation labelled against them, nobody would have a job!! #jussaying

If they relieved everyone because of every allegation labelled against them, nobody would have a job!!

@alusi okija,
then u don't listen to news. when u have a case in the court, u shld be relieved of ur job to enable fair trial but the truth about it all is that we have a president, whose wife has a $13m scam on her head while they were gov and first lady of bayelsa and this case has been with efcc so joe has no moral standard to persecute others while inside his bedroom, 5ft plus corruption leaves there.
if there must be charity, then let it start from home that is why corruption is the order of the day in nigeria.