Car scandal: Security beefed up at TRACON site

Stern security operatives on Tuesday prevented journalists from gaining entry to the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria site.

TRACON is the place where the four Toyota Tundra and limousine vehicles allegedly purchased by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency for the Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, were parked at the Abuja Airport.

This is coming as a senior personnel with the agency told our correspondent that the cars had nothing to do with NAMA or the ministry.

An online medium, SaharaReporters, had reported on Monday that NAMA purchased four Toyota Tundra and four stretch limousines vehicles for the minister.

It said the vehicles were in addition to two armoured cars purchased for Oduah by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority at an allegedly inflated rate of N255m, a development that had sparked criticisms among Nigerians.

When our correspondent visited the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport to see the vehicles, he was not allowed to enter by security operatives at the main gate leading to the TRACON site, the reported location where the vehicles were said to have been parked.

But the NAMA official described the report as false, stressing that the cars were used by a private airline operator to transport passengers that patronised the carrier’s services.

The official pleaded not to be named due to the sensitive nature of events that had characterised the sector lately.

The source said, “The minister has nothing to do with those vehicles. They are owned by a concessionaire who also is the owner of a chartered airline. The media report that the agency bought those cars for the minister is not true. The limousines were bought by the chartered airline operator for operational purposes.

“The cars are used to convey passengers who disembark the chartered flight from the tarmac to the terminal or to any destination as contained in the agreement with the carrier. The cars have nothing to do with NAMA neither does it have anything to do with the ministry of aviation.”

According to the source, the vehicles were purely for transporting very important dignitaries.

“They are owned by a private operator who was given concessions to move VIPs to different locations and for emphasis this is what is on ground. The cars are not owned by NAMA. The Federal Ministry of Aviation has enough cars to transport the minister and they do not include those limousines.”

Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the agency, Mr. Supo Atobatele, in a statement, described the reports as frivolous, malicious and mischievous.

He said, “We hereby make it categorically clear to the unsuspecting public that this evil story, as being  promoted is patently false in its entirety and is calculated to put the agency and the office of the minister into disrepute.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the said limousines belong to a concessionaire who is running a VIP shuttle service for non-scheduled operators.”

He said the vehicles were never on the inventory of NAMA and we would like to declare with all emphasis that we do not run ground services as we are statutorily, an air navigation service provider.

In another development, the spokesperson for the agencies in under the aviation ministry, Mr. Yakubu Dati, said Nigerians were mischievously told a lie that the N255m BMW cars had been paid for, “meanwhile they were purchased on hire purchase and payments are yet to even commence.”