The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has debunked an allegation that it acting Director General/CEO, Capt. Chris Najomo, purchased 2022 Toyota Landcruiser worth over N250m, which was not captured in the budget for himself.
The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection in NCAA, Michael Achimugu, while briefing newsmen in Abuja on Monday, said the report has lots of inconsistency and the headline is defamatory.
He said NCCA did not pay any amount of money for any vehicle since Captain Najomo came into the office .
He said the story is a sponsored attempt to deligrade the person of the Captain Najomo and everyone working in the authority.
In his words, ” I challenge the writer to present evidence and I will tender my resignation immediately and not only that I will ask the DG to do such as well.”
He disclosed that the writer had reached out to the DG on the report and he was told to come to the office on Monday to get a reaction, but unfortunately the reporter went out published the report on Saturday.
He further explained that to purchase anything in the NCAA it has to go through procurement process, if the money has not gone through the process how will the DG purchase a vehicle of N250million, saying such amount is beyond the purview of the DG to approve .
“When the Minister spoke about corruption what he meant is that there is systemic corruption in the industry and he did not say Captain Chris Najomo is corrupt .
“So, the Ministers statement cannot be validated for the highly vexation defamatory and libelous comment. How do you publish a story without putting out the evidence you claim to have,” he said.
On the issue of seized fund, he said the issue of seized fund is not peculiar to NCAA alone and all the aviation agencies have their money seized and despite the seizure, NCAA still remit money to the federal government who in turns deduct 50percent and remit back to the agency.
It was reported that there is no appropriation approval by the National Assembly in NCAA budget for the purchase of this particular vehicle.
