The House of Representatives Wednesday resolved to carry out a comprehensive investigation on the airworthiness and technical status of all the aircrafts in the presidential Air Fleet, as well as the professional competence of the engineers and technicians of the fleet.
To this end, the House Committee on National Security and Intelligence, has invited the National Security Adviser, Commandant of the Presidential Air Fleet and any other relevant officer(s) of government to give detail explanation on why the fleet is not operating at optimum capacity that is needed to guarantee presidential safety.
There have been recent reports that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was forced to travel to Saudi Arabia on a chattered flight for the World Economic Forum in Riyadh from the Netherlands, where he had gone for a series of economic and diplomatic engagements because the presidential jet developed fault in the Netherlands.
The committee is expected to after the engagement, proffer recommendations that will ensure lasting and sustainable solution to incidences which has brought shame and embarrassment to the country.
Chairman of the committee, Hon. Ahmed Satomi, said it was alarming from media reports last week, to hear of aborted Vice President Kashim Shetima’s trip to the United States of America for the 2024 UU-Africa Business Summit in Dallas Texas.
“This report was corroborated in the press release by Stanley Nwokocha, senior special assistant to the president on Media and Communications, Office of the Vice President, stating that the Vice President Kashim Shetima who was originally scheduled to represent the president was unable to make the trip following technical fault with the aircraft, forcing him to make a detour on the advice of the Presidential Air Fleet.
“These occurrences pose a clear present and imminent threat to the life of the president, the vice president and other Very Important Personalities who use the fleet from time to time.
