Embattled minister Stella Oduah gets respite as House of Reps reschedules N255million car hearing

Published: October 28,2013

The hearing will now hold on Wednesday to allow those invited get their acts together, the House said.

The House of Representatives has handed the embattled aviation minister a 24-hour respite by rescheduling the N255 million armoured car hearing earlier scheduled for Tuesday.

The hearing will now hold on Wednesday, 12pm, the House said on Monday.

Mrs Oduah was mandated by the House aviation committee to return to Nigeria from Israel where she traveled to last week, to attend the committee’s hearing on Tuesday without fail.

The minister is facing twin investigation for directing NCAA, an agency under her ministry, to purchase two armoured cars at a quarter of a billion naira, an inflated sum sufficient to buy at least four of the cars.

A presidential panel is also reviewing the contract.

Amid calls for her removal, Mrs Oduah jetted last week to Israel, on the entourage of President Goodluck Jonathan, missing the first hearing by the House committee where lawmakers confirmed the car contract was not approved in the budget, and was not open to public tender.

Representatives of the NCAA attended the first hearing, but are to present more documents this week. First Bank which financed the purchase, and Coscharis, the supplier of the cars, have yet to make submissions.

Angry lawmakers insisted Mrs Oduah must be in attendance to enable the week-long probe report to the House plenary. The House will sit in full on Tuesday, and the initial report of the investigation should be expected.

But the committee said Monday the hearing will now hold on Wednesday to allow all those invited, including the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, First Bank and car supplier, Coscharis, to “put their documents together”.

“This is to notify all stakeholders and the general public that day 2 Public Hearing of House Committee on Aviation on the purchase of two BMW cars by Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) earlier slated for Tuesday 29 October 2013 has been post -phoned to Wednesday 30th October 2013,” the committee said in a statement on Monday.