Senator Babafemi Ojudu has described the setting up of an administrative panel of inquiry by the presidency to investigate the allegation against the Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah, as a wild goose chase
and another waste of time and dubious waste of the resources of the Nigerian nation.

There has been a serious public outcry against the purchase of two armoured cars at the cost N225 million by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Agency (NCAA) for the Aviation Minister.

Ojudu, in a statement in Abuja, said there are several financial crimes and corrupt practices agencies which are constitutionally empowered to carry out such investigations and make their reports available to the President. He wondered why the president would set up a panel of inquiry, which colouration already tells a lot about the conclusions it would reach, to usurp the powers of these agencies, adding that the only reason for such is that Mr. President does not have the stomach to really allow a proper investigation of the allegations against Oduah who had been said to have played a pivotal role in the president's electoral victory in 2011.

He contended that judging from previous committees that were set up in similar fashion, it would appear that the Jonathan presidency was pooling another wool over the eyes of Nigerians, adding that if it were so, President Jonathan then really needs to change his strategy as Nigerians are wiser now and would no longer be deceived by such committees whose members are mostly always beneficiaries of the rot that had come to characterise the Jonathan presidency.

Explaining that the laws regarding such situations are clear. Ojudu said that in accordance with the law, spending public funds without budgetary provision attracts 3 years in jail or a fine of N100, 000 while contracts involving public funds without following due procurement processes, just as is the case in the cars purchased for the Aviation Minister, attracts a minimum of 5 years in jail and a maximum of 10 years imprisonment.



He added that in spite of her inability to reposition the aviation sector, it was unthinkable, fiscally irresponsible and criminal that cars could still be bought to "protect her from phantom threats to her life" with the proceeds of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Agency.

Ojudu said: "This is in spite of the unassailable fact that no existing record shows that the provision for the purchase of the cars were made in the NCAA budget or that of the Aviation Ministry. Out of nowhere, Mrs. Stella Oduah, without budgetary provision, had an agency under the supervision of her ministry buy cars for her. This, no doubt, has upped the sad comedy going on in the Jonathan administration's Theatre of the Absurd."

Ojudu said he was, however, sure that nothing would come out of the "so-called panel of inquiry" set up by the Jonathan administration, an action he said had clearly demonstrated to Nigerians once more that the maxim of the Jonathan government is that "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."

He said if the PDP-led FG continues on this path, the country may just be heading for the precipice, a situation which definitely cannot bode well for anyone, hence the urgency to act by ensuring that corrupt public officials are properly made scape-goats to deter others who may want to do same and also to demonstrate strongly that no one, position or status notwithstanding, is above the law