It is unacceptable that Hadi Sirika is still walking free despite Nigeria allegedly spending N85 billion on the failed Nigeria Air project under his watch as Minister of Aviation.
Development Diaries reports that while speaking recently on the Nigeria Air project, the current Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, revealed that Sirika granted five-year tax waivers to Ethiopian Airlines.
Keyamo also questioned Sirika’s agreement with their demands that all top management positions be filled by Ethiopians.
‘In the agreement you are giving tax waivers to Ethiopian Air coming into Nigeria, they asked for tax waivers for five years, and you granted them to come and compete with your local airlines who are paying those heavy taxes’, Keyamo was heard saying in a video.
Recall that in May 2023, a video showing a plane with the ‘Nigeria Air’ inscription on it trended on social media on the last working day of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Following the development, the Managing Director of Nigeria Air, Dayo Olumide, disclosed that the plane that landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on 26 May, 2023, was a chartered one from Ethiopia.
As a result of the inconsistencies, Development Diaries, in June, called on the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to carry out thorough investigations into the entire Nigeria Air project.
It is quite surprising, however, that Sirika still walks free, especially since the Senate and House of Representatives committees on aviation have separately declared that the Nigeria Air project was a fraud.
The former minister obviously made a mess of the country’s image, and it was expected that investigations should have commenced long ago on the findings, but the government has been silent on it.
Maybe the fight against corruption is selective, and there is a deliberate choice of who is investigated using the state’s resources.
Development Diaries reiterates its call on the anti-corruption agencies in the country to immediately begin investigations and prosecution of Sirika.
Photo source: Ministry of Aviation
