FG to sell presidential aircrafts to cut waste

Mallam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity has explained that the President directed the sale of two aircraft in the presidential fleet in order to cut down waste.

The Federal Government had put up two aircraft in the presidential fleet for sale.

According to an advert placed in a national daily on Tuesday, a Falcon 7x and Hawker 4000 are the aircraft to be sold off.

Interested buyers were asked to inspect the Falcon at the presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, and the Hawker at Cessna Zurich Citation Service Centre, Zurich, Switzerland.

The office of the national security adviser, ONSA, which is in charge of the sale, said all bids should be quoted in US dollars.

However, Shehu in a statement explained that by directing the sale of the aircraft, the President has fulfilled one of his campaign promises.

He disclosed that the President was only interested in keeping aircraft that he, Buhari, his Vice and other government officials that go on special missions would use, adding that other aircraft in the Presidential fleet will be handed over to the Air Force.

The statement reads, “The newspaper advertisements for the sale of two presidential aircraft, a Falcon 7x executive jet and Hawker 4000 were duly authorized by the presidency.

“This is in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari that aircraft in the presidential air fleet be reduced to cut down on waste.

“When he campaigned to be President, the then APC candidate Muhammadu Buhari, if you recall, promised to look at the presidential air fleet with view to cutting down on waste.

“His directive to a government committee on this assignment is that he liked to see a compact and reliable aircraft for the safe airlift of the president, the vice-president and other government officials that go on special missions.

“This exercise is by no means complete. I am sure the commander of the presidential air fleet will any time from now, call you to a ceremony at which he will hand over some other aircraft to the Air Force for their operations.”