Helicopter sale: Aviation College director, auctioneer arrested over sale of 2 helicopters at $1.2 million

A director in the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology, NCAT an unlicensed auctioneer have been ordered by the House of Representatives to be arrested in connection with illegal sale of two helicopters at a giveaway price of $1.2 million.

The said helicopters now in the United States of America have been under investigation by the Reps Committee on Public Assets which has been discovered that there were sold without due process.

NCAT’s Director of Quality Control was unable to defend the sales on Tuesday, leading to the order for the Police in the National Assembly to arrest the duo for allegedly providing false information on oath.

The Committee also ordered the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun to continue investigation, which the Reps Committee insisted that the helicopters were indiscriminately disposed.

CAPITAL POST gathered that the two helicopters were for training of students at the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology Zaria.

It was recalled that the Committee launched investigation into the sales of helicopters in December, 2023.
The committee’s mandate is to recover assets valued at trillions of naira and moribund public assets within and outside Nigeria and to unravel the reasons behind the hurried sale of two helicopters without the approval of the Federal Executive Council days before the end of the Buhari administration in 2023.

Present at the Committee were the management team of NCAT, representatives of the Nigerian Army and others crucial to.

The chairman of the Committee, Ademorin Kuye expressed worries that the two choppers bought at $2.4 billion were sold at $1.2 billion without due process.

“We requested documents of any kind of joint venture, there is no response to that whether you have one or you do not.

“We requested for a list of assets including a comprehensive description and specifications of all your list assets, rented apartments including acquisition dates and methods and the current status and conditions of such Assets. We can not say specifically that you have satisfied all of these requests. Though you tried to answer some of them, your response is not adequate” Hon Kuye said.

The lawmakers also queried the use of an unlicensed auctioneer who failed to provide needed response to enquiries.

In his reaction, Musa Alkali, Coordinator of Nigerian Army Aviation said that the request by the Army to make use of the helicopters in the fight against terrorism was turned down, he however demanded that the two helicopters should be recovered.

A member of the committee, Midala Balami, said that the documents presented to the committee were false documents.