By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Nigeria’s House of Representatives Committee on Public Assets has called for the arrest of an auctioneer and the Director of Quality Control at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Idrisu Ibrahim, over the alleged sale of two helicopters for $1.2 million.
The committee called on the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to arrest and take over the investigation of the alleged indiscriminate sale of two of NCAT’s helicopters.
The resolution of the Committee on Public Assets came after about five hours of interaction with the management of the College and other relevant bodies.
The Chairman of the Commitee, Ademorin Kuye, worried that the two choppers bought at $2.4 million were sold at $1.2 million without due process.
“We requested for list of assets including comprehensive description and specifications of all your list assets, rented apartments including acquisition dates and methods and the current status and conditions of such assets. We can not say specifically that you have satisfied all of these requests. Though you tried to answer some of them, your response are not adequate,” Kuye said.
The acting rector of the NCAT, Joseph Imalighwe, and the former rector, Capt. Alkali Modibbo provided details regarding the sale of the two helicopters, which were subsequently rejected by the committee.
Kuye and his colleagues also queried the use of an unlicensed auctioneer who failed to provide needed response to enquiries.
In his reaction, Alkali, who is also the Coordinator Nigerian Army Aviation, said the request by Army to make use of the helicopters in the fight against terrorism was turned down. He demanded that the two helicopters should be recovered.
A member of the committee, Midala Balami, said the document presented to the commitee were false documents.
Last December, the House launched an investigation into the state of public assets in the country.
The committee’s mandate is to recover assets valued at trillions of naira and moribund public assets within and outside Nigeria and to unravel reasons behind the hurried sale of two helicopters without the approval of the Federal Executive Council days to the end of the Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2023.
