Former minister of aviation, Hadi Sirika, says the Nigeria Air project conceptualised by former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was a scam.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Tuesday, Sirika said the government followed due process in trying to execute the project.
He said, contrary to claims that he spent N100 billion in the project, only about N3 billion out of the total N5 billion budget was released.
“It is a public-private partnership which was regulated by the Infrastructure Concessioning Regulatory Commission (ICRC), which gave certificates and participated actively in the process,” he said.
“It is a lie that I spent N100 billion, and it was lost in the process. The total budget for the national carrier was N5bn, the total amount released was N3 billion, and I left the ministry with over N1 billion.”
The former aviation minister said the bulk of the money was spent on consultancies and staff salaries, adding that the project was stalled because a court case was initiated by some private Nigerian airlines
“We went through every single step of the ICRC process, and we got it to the end, and we had an airline,” Sirika added.
“Some people went to court, Airspeace, United and Azman went to court to say that we cannot, as a government, establish an airline while we take a stake of five percent, and that is what stalled it.
“If there was no court case and if the government had come in and pursued the court case by today, we would have had the airline.”
Since leaving office in 2023, Sirika has been facing trial for alleged corruption and abuse of office.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused him of awarding multi-billion naira contracts to companies owned by his family members, including his daughter, Fatima Sirika, and son-in-law, Jalal Hamma.
Answering questions on whether his visit to the Presidential Villa on Tuesday was to get a soft landing in his corruption trial, Sirika said the case was still pending in court, noting that it was prejudiced for him to comment on the issue.
“The purpose of the meeting was to officially pay our condolences to the president who did extremely well after the demise of our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari,” he said.
“Also to appreciate him of what he has done and to assure him of the support of our party for which he is our leader.
“Unfortunately, this matter is in the court of law, and it is not a matter that should be subjected to the press.
”I am a very clean man. I have worked with people. The government has every instrument at their disposal to find my character.”
