The House of Representatives has vowed that it will recover two Bell helicopters, Bell 206L4 BZB and Bell M2061- L4, belonging to the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, Kaduna State sold to private individuals.

The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Public Assets, Ademorin Kuye, said this at the investigative hearing on the sale of the two helicopters in Abuja on Thursday.

Kuye expressed concern over the sale of the two helicopters to private individuals, when the college was left with no helicopter for training.

The committee also questioned the process leading to the sale of the helicopters as security agencies, including the Nigerian Air Force, Navy and the police, indicated interest to purchase them.

The security agencies were, however, denied by the management of the NCAT.

The three security agencies, according to various submissions, did not only indicate interest in purchasing the helicopters by writing but also visited the college but were denied the opportunity to purchase them.

The acting Rector, NCAT, Mr Shaka Imalighwe, said though he was the Deputy Rector of the college at the time the helicopters were sold, he was not part of the team/committee that facilitated the sales.

Imalighwe said that he took over the management of the college in an acting capacity in January 2024.

The committee said in spite of initial appeals to NCAT to provide certain documents regarding the process that led to the sale of the helicopters in May 2023, they had not been able to provide them.

This, according to him, was in respect of approval of the Federal Executive Council and the Ministry of Aviation as well as newspaper publication advertising the intention to sell the helicopters.

Imalighwe told the committee that the helicopters were in service and being maintained by relevant aviation bodies when they were sold.

The acting rector of the college also confirmed to the lawmakers that at the moment, there was no single helicopter in the institution for training.

The lawmakers argued that it was wrong for NCAT to have used an unlicensed auctioneer to sell the helicopters.

The committee directed the immediate past and current Minister of Aviation to appear before it in the next investigative hearing.

Also summoned was the Ministry of Works, Ministry of Finance Incorporated, MOFI, both immediate past and present rectors of the college, among others.

The Rector of the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, Kaduna State, Captain Akali Modibo, has debunked the insinuation that two helicopters are missing in the college.

He said the helicopters in question were duly sold as they were becoming a drain on the resources of the college, revealing that the college spent N5bn maintaining them for about 10 years while lying idle in the hangar.

It would be recalled that the choppers, Bell 206, were bought during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan for the purpose of training pilots, but the equipment were not the type used for training by the college.

As a result, the planes were redundant for 10 years until a decision was made to sell them.

“If the government had involved NCAT, we would have told them the type of aircraft we can use for training, which is piston engine helicopters. Nowhere in the world is this helicopter type used for training. It’s like you using a Boeing 737 aircraft to teach someone how to become a pilot; you don’t do that.”

Mr Modibbo explained that a federal government licenced auctioneer, Messrs Tresmo Nigeria Limited, was appointed to dispose of the affected helicopters sequel to the approval and valuation reports obtained from the Federal Ministries of Aviation and Works, respectively.

According to him, the auctioneer paid $275,782,661.25 and $280,417,661.25 (totalling N1.2 billion) vide FGN Remita receipts bearing reference numbers 3008-4333-3046 and 1008-4304-1098, accordingly.

Furthermore, the NCAT chief executive said that the Federal Ministry of Aviation in a letter dated 15th March 2023, granted approval for the disposal of the two Bell 206 helicopters to enable the college to acquire Basic Trainer Helicopters.

The NCAT Rector added that the auctioneer also accepted and executed the disposal of the helicopters via a letter signed by Baba Malik on 7th April 2023, which also remitted the proceeds of N1.2 billion into the Federal Government account.

greenermodels:
Nigeria is a crime scene, it's worse than a zoo.

89green:
What exactly are the functions of these reps??

cenaman:
Tinubu is a criminal