The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has summoned the former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, to appear before the commission.
The anti-corruption agency which earlier questioned officials of Nigerian Air requires more information on the recent launch of the airline in Abuja.
While the minister was due to appear before the commission within the week to answer questions related to the launch of the airline, Nigerian Air, painted in Ethiopian colours.
“I can confirm that there is an ongoing investigation in that regard”, spokesman to EFCC,Wilson Uwujaren said there is an ongoing investigation.
The commission would look at the N3 billion sunk into the project even as some stakeholders insisted that over N80 billion was spent in the botched project.
Stakeholders were enraged that an Ethiopian airline that landed in Nigeria with Ethiopian colours was packaged as a national carrier.
The minister recently on Arise News channel described the landing of the Ethiopian aircraft in Abuja as a marketing strategy.
Credible News recalls that Sirika, during an interview with Arise Television on Sunday accused the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Nnolim Nnaji, of demanding five percent stake in the controversial and proposed national carrier, Nigeria Air.
Nnaji had earlier declared Nigeria Air as a fraudulent deal after stakeholders in the project appeared
The Managing Director of Nigeria Air, Dayo Olumide, while facing inquiries by lawmakers on the project, revealed that the aircraft that landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on May 26, 2023, was chartered from Ethiopia Airlines.
However, Sirika replied: “I record all my things. He asked that I should give him five percent of the Nigeria Air to carry him along with his people and I said to him that time, this is a bidding process that has taken place, and some people won.
“So, I think you should go to those people and ask them for the five per cent; I even told him that at some point even the five per cent held by the Federal Government will go to the market so he should get his money ready and buy for him and his people”.
Nnaji described Sirika’s allegations as lies, adding that the ex-minister is a drowning man who will hold to anything to survive.
