Chairman,
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
EFCC Headquarters,
FCT, Abuja.
28-05-202
Sir,
A PETITION TO URGENTLY ARREST AND INVESTIGATE THE OUTGOING AVIATION MINISTER, HADI SIRIKA, FOR THE HUMONGOUS SCAM PERPETRATED BY HIM VIA THE FAKE NIGERIA AIR
SecureWorld and Liberty Initiative for Peace, SELIP, is a CAC registered Non-Governmental Organisation among whose objectives is to free Nigeria from the debilitating aggression of corruption and financial crimes.
SELIP has also been registered by the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering of the EFCC, SCUML with Registration Number 251417188. (Pls find attached for confirmation).
We bring to your attention the sophisticated scam being orchestrated by the outgoing Aviation Minister, Senator Hadi Sirika, through the sham called Nigeria Air. To start with, everything is wrong and suspicious about this Nigeria Air project from airline operations protocol violations, to improper or nonexistent certification, to outright frauds perpetrated by outgoing Aviation Minister.
The focal points of our petition, therefore, are as enumerated below:
1. In the first instance, the impression created by the Aviation Minister that Nigeria has an airline called Nigeria Air is fundamentally a fraudulent claim. Reason being that to claim ownership of an airline you must have certification in that respect and to be so certified you must own, at least, three certified fit aircrafts by relevant local and international Aviation agencies. The so-called Nigeria Air does not have one even on a wet lease not to total of owning one. The only aircraft branded Nigeria Air that was flown into the country on Friday May 26 by the Aviation Minister is alleged to belong to Ethiopian Airlines as the registration number is that of Ethiopia and not Nigeria’s. We posit unequivocally that this is a grand scheme of deception and an unprecedented scam in Nigeria’s Aviation Industry.
It is a venture designed to benefit a few individuals as an enterprise of corrupt cronyism designed to cause the eventual collapse of the Nigerian aviation sector.
2. The outgoing Minister actually acted in a flagrant disobedience to a subsisting Court order to stop any further action on the purported Nigeria Air project.
This was a desperate move to hoodwink President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and, indeed unsuspecting Nigerians, into believing that Nigeria Air has been truly birthed as promised. We have it on good authority tha the minister flew in a re-painted aircraft owned by Ethiopian Airlines and passed it off as the maiden flight belonging to Nigeria Air.
The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos headed by Justice A.L Allagoa, in a suit filed by the Airline Operators of Nigeria, had granted three separate orders of injunctions, restraining the Federal Government from taking any step about the Nigeria Air project but the minister, in a desperate bid to cover up the monumental frauds in the deal, elected to flagrantly disobey an order of a court of competent jurisdiction and produced a sham called unveiling of Nigeria Air flight last Friday.
3. We are compelled to bring to your attention that the old aircraft purportedly unveiled on Friday, May 26, 2023, by the Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, as the first flight of the national carrier, Nigeria Air, is still in active service of Ethiopia Airlines. We can confirm that the aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 with the registration number ET-APL, has since left the country this weekend for Ethiopia according to a check on the flight radar; it only transited Nigeria for the farce of a show put up by the minister. The flight landing in the country with Ethiopia Airlines’ registration number means Nigeria Air has no Air Operator Certificate. No aircraft can be registered in Nigeria without the carrier having an AOC which means that the aircraft does not belong to Nigeria Air either as leased or owned equipment. Therefore, Minister Sirika should not be allowed to fool Nigerians.
4. We demand that your Commission immediately set in motion the investigative mechanisms to get Minister Sirika, whether still in or out of office as at the time of receiving this petition, to fully account for a whopping N15.9 billion allegedly committed so far to the phantom Nigeria Air project by the Federal Government. We seriously suspect that the Minister took the illegal and precipitate actions in his desperate attempt to cover up the monumental frauds surrounding nonexisting Nigeria Air.
N1.3 billion was allotted to it again in the 2023 budget with an additional N700 million as ‘working capital’ and N200 million as consultancy fee. All that we have gotten from all the huge public resources poured into this project so far was a rented aircraft brought into the country to deceive Nigerians and pass it off as a step to the commencement of the operation of the airline days to his exit from office. This act of fraud and economic terrorism must not be allowed to go unpunished.
5. Sirika claimed that Nigeria Air Limited is a private sector-led airline, with only five per cent of the company owned by the Nigerian government. The minister also added that a consortium of entrepreneurs in Nigeria owns 46 percent while investors in Ethiopian Airlines retain 49 percent of the shares.
But the conception and implementation of the national carrier project were shrouded in ambiguity and designed to defraud the people of Nigeria by a few Nigerians in connivance with their international collaborators. This is a culpable treason against the Federal Republic of Nigeria and an unforgivable unpatriotic act of economic terrorism against the country this Minister vowed under oath to serve well.
To the best of our knowledge, there is no agreement with the stakeholders in Nigeria and nobody has signed any bidding agreement. So, on what basis has an old painted plane been brought in to deceive Nigerians? The lack of transparency on funding and alleged zero consideration for local players and national interest is frightening as the proposed Shareholders’ Agreement which none of the other stakeholders has agreed to sign, reserves all Executive Director positions for the Ethiopians with Nigerians as inconsequential deputies. These are some of the reasons the stakeholders are worried and concerned because of the complete disregard for national interest.
Minister Sirika must be compelled to explain why, in the proposed Shareholder Agreement, Ethiopian Airlines will also collect millions of dollars yearly as management fees despite having 49% shares and why the East African company will attract such grace by using just their own planes as contributions to the project.
6. We demand that EFCC probe the 3% of the total shares allocated to Fairfax Ltd which was appointed as the Transaction Adviser to the project and why the Minister granted Fairfax Nigeria Limited, in which he allegedly has substantial interests, the shares without paying a dime.
This company will also be paid millions of dollars monthly and will be in charge of procurement for Nigeria Air.
7. Being a high flight risk after May 29th, 2023, we demand the immediate arrest of Minister Hadi Sirika before he flees the country. We urge your Commission to keep perfect vigilance on Minister Sirika and not allow him escape from these shores but be made to answer for his massive corruption that is bound to harm the critical sector of Nigeria’s Aviation Industry.
This scam scheme can only be compared to the daring scam by a Nigerian who sold phantom airport to some Brazilians years ago. We are sure the Commission has institutional memory of that obnoxious financial crime that caused Nigeria international embarrassment. The current scam is no less obnoxious.
We have confidence that the EFCC will do justice and timely, too, to get to the bottom of this scam and save Nigeria’s Aviation Industry from the impending doom.
Sgd.
Comrade Mark Adebayo,
Executive Director,
SELIP
