Nigeria’s Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, Sacked

Minister Of Aviation, Stella Oduah

Nigeria’s Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, has been fired by President Goodluck Jonathan. Ms. Oduah has been caught in a web of certificate scandals and a scandalous purchase of two BMW armored cars for $1.6 million. Both scandals were exposed by New York city based online whistleblower

Our source reported that Ms. Oduah and three other ministers within the Jonathan govt were relieved of their positions on the orders of Mr. Jonathan. However, their sack was passed off as  voluntary resignation from the cabinet.
 The other ministers sacked includes, the minister of the Niger Delta, Godsday Orubebe, minister of police affairs, Chris Olukolade and the minister of state for Finance, Yerima  Ngama
Late last year, we reported that Ms. Oduah had compelled the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to pay Coscharis Motors, an auto dealer, approximately $1.6 million for two BMW bullet-proof cars. Investigations by us showed that the highest cost for each such car in both the US and UK was $267,000 per car. NCAA and other sources further disclosed that the two cars were never delivered, compounding a scam by Ms. Oduah who reportedly split the $1.6 million funds with Cosmas Maduka, the chief executive of Coscharis.
More recently, SaharaReporters discovered that the former Aviation Minister did not earn a Masters degree she claimed to have received from a US college.

Ministerial Certificate Scandal: Stella Oduah’s Profile Page Now Disabled On Ministry’s Website

Nigeria’s troubled Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Ada Oduah, has ordered the webpage which displays her profile on the website of the ministry disabled.

The ministry’s website is at www.aviation.gov.ng.
The latest action follows a series of reports by SaharaReporters and Premium Times revealing that she did not obtain the higher degrees she had claimed on the site and in press interviews.
The page, which was first subjected to several alterations after the scandal broke, now returns an error 404 when users try to click on that link.
SaharaReporters began a series of exposes on the minister’s educational background on Monday night.  By Tuesday she had removed any mention of St. Paul’s College, the institutions where she initially claimed in citations, on Wikipedia and several personal websites that she earned a Masters Degree.  By yesterday, SaharaReporters obtained her curriculum vitae but it curiously made no mention of the widely, previously-claimed MBA. However, she claimed to have obtained an “honorary Ph.D” from Christian Pacific University in Glendale, California.  That claim has also now been found to be false.
Meanwhile, the authorities of St. Paul’s College in Lawrenceville, Virginia have yet to confirm that Mrs. Oduah actually obtained her first degree at the school.  Speaking with SaharaReporters on Wednesday, St. Paul’s President, Millard D. “Pete” Stith Jr., said the registrar, was out sick.
Yesterday the registrar, Ms. Helen Jackson, resumed work and promised to check the archives to fish out Mrs. Oduah’s record to clarify that the Minister did undergraduate studies did at the institution.
A horde of supporters of the Minister are reportedly calling the college to harass the President of the college, threatening him with legal action for “invasion of privacy” should he release to the media any information relating to Oduah’s attendance of the institution, or lack of it.

Biggest Eyes Service- Nigerian Airports To Have Hi-Tech Explosive Detectors –

No be me talk am oh. The unfavoured and fraud Minister of aviation, is now trying to do her job, what is the big deal in installing explosive detector? what is the cost? hope this time not  USD900 Billion?? hmm. that thing na normal thing jor, go sit down and ask the allegations agaisnt you with the two BMW cars costing the tax payers 1.6 Million US dollars and forging MBA degree from a college not from a University. 

My people, I have you ever heard a college awarding MBA, you can fool some people, but you can not fool ALL THE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME.

In a bid to boost safety and security measures in Nigeria’s airports, the Federal Ministry of Aviation has acquired Hi-tech three-in-one explosive detectors for 15 out of the 22 airports in the country. The facilities would be capable of detecting liquid, metals and explosives during airport screening.

Announcing this new development yesterday, spokesman for the Aviation Ministry, Mr Yakubu Dati said that the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja and the Muritala Mohammed International Airports in Lagos already have the facilities installed, while other airports are in the process of having theirs fully installed. Good news!

Breaking News- Stella Oduah Deletes Education References Online After SR Report

The troubled Aviation Minister is dancing and swimming in all sorts of scandals ranging from stealing public funds to acquire luxury armored BMW to forging MBA degree. Nigerians can not be trusted. why on earth should an honourable minister of the federal republic of nigeria forge a degree. why didnt her degree verified before resuming office. wonders will never end in nigeria

I saw the Sahara Reporters news yesterday but decided to leave it alone until the Minister responds to the allegations. And she has, by erasing her educational references online after SR’s report hit the net.

According to the report by Sahara Reporters, Aviation Minister Stella Odua’s Master’s degree which she claimed to have obtained from St. Paul’s College Lawrenceville, Virginia, US and presented to the Senate in 2011 as a ministerial nominee, is fake, because the school does not offer graduate programs.

Sahara Reporters learned from the President of the college that it has never in its 125-year history had a graduate school or graduate program. The Provost Vice President of Academic Affairs, and the Vice President of Institutional Development said “We don’t offer any graduate programs here.”

Premium Times went digging and it looks like the allegation is true because by 4pm today, her profile page on Facebook was edited and all traces of St. Paul’s College was removed from the account. It was also removed from her Wikipedia page and her biography on the Ministry of Aviation website. See screen grabs after the cut…

Her Wikipedia page only says she received her Bachelors and Masters Degree (in Accounting and Business Administration respectively) in the United States, with no mention of what university.

 

Her FB profile pic with St Pauls

The edited version. DID NOT mention of St Pauls

US College Says It Did Not Award MBA To Stella Oduah As It Has No Masters Programme

Stella Oduah

Stella Oduah, Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation who is embroiled in a scandal of towering proportions in the ministry, faces new integrity questions as her Masters’ degree has been challenged by the United States school which supposedly awarded it.

Her resume, which she presented to the Senate as a ministerial nominee in 2011, indicated she obtained a Master's degree in Business Administration (MBA) from St. Paul’s College Lawrenceville, Virginia, United States.
But SaharaReporters has learned from the President of the college that it has never in its 125-year history had a graduate school or graduate program.
The Provost Vice President of Academic Affairs, and the Vice President of Institutional Development said in response to our inquiries, “We don’t offer any graduate programs here.”
Similarly, the school’s website states: “Saint Paul's College is accredited by the Commission of Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award baccalaureate [bachelor’s] degrees.”  There is no mention of graduate degrees.

The Minister’s documentation shows she received an undergraduate degree in accounting from the college in 1982, but Dr. Claud Flythe, St. Paul’s current president, could neither confirm nor deny this during a phone conversation with SaharaReporters.  Further verification with the Office of Alumni Affairs is also currently impossible, the school said, because the college has been closed since June 2013 to loss of its accreditation.
“[Oduah] realized very early in life the indispensability of a sound education in her growth plans in life and therefore pursued her education with all diligence and sense of purpose,” her documents claimed, adding that a determination “to have the best education at the highest level” prompted her stay at the Virginia college in 1983 for the MBA programme.
As her public relations machinery marched on, in December 2012 The Sun newspaper published an article headlined “Stella Oduah: An Amazon of transformation,” which lauded her “MBA from St Paul’s College, Lawrenceville Virginia USA.”  The story also praised her for being an official who brought her “rich educational background to bear on the aviation sector by automating revenue centers in all the agencies and parastatals to boost their revenue profile and enhance transparency and accountability in the system.”
In October, SaharaReporters broke the story that Mrs. Oduah, a former campaign manager for President Goodluck Jonathan, purchased two bulletproof BMW cars worth $ 1.6 Million (N255m) through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, for her own use.
Following an investigation, the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation dismissed the Minister’s pleas of innocence and all her rebuttals during her testimony.  The committee’s report, which was subsequently adopted by the House, declared that no budgetary appropriation had been made for the purchase of the cars, and that the NCAA proposal for their purchase was rejected.
President Jonathan also set up a three-member administrative panel to investigate the matter, but he immediately travelled out of the country with Mrs. Oduah and Colonel Dasuki, the National Security Adviser who was to serve as a member of the panel.  Not only did the panel submit its report much later than the two weeks it was given for the assignment, Mr. Jonathan has refused to release its report.
Mrs. Oduah’s new certificate questions are certain to feed into national concern about her credibility as an elected official, but also about Mr. Jonathan’s credibility, and about the nation’s security apparatus which verifies official documents offered to the Senate for official nominations.
If Mrs. Oduah deliberately deceived the Senate, it remains to be seen if the Upper House will be sufficiently motivated to take up the matter with the Executive.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s aviation industry continues to face a massive challenge, with struggling airports and airlines, as well as financial and administrative pitfalls that hinder expansion and development.

Bulletproof Cars: Reps Recommend 3-year Jail Term For #Oduah

The minister of aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, compelled the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to purchase the two BMW bulletproof cars that cost N255m, lawmakers have stated.

They added that Oduah should face the consequence of spending public money on unbudgeted expenditure such as the purchase of the cars: a three-year jail term and a fine of N100, 000.

These are part of recommendations of the report of the House Committee on Aviation which investigated the allegation that the minister asked NCAA to purchase two armoured BMW cars for her at the rate of N255m.

The report reads: “That the contract for the purchase of the cars was not listed in the budget by NCAA, the agency compelled by the minister to make the purchase, and was not listed by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).

“That spending public funds on unbudgeted projects attracts three years in jail and a fine of N100, 000 as stipulated by the ICPC Act.”

As exclusively reported by LEADERSHIP, the lawmakers also disclosed that the NCAA did not comply with the Fiscal Responsibility Act on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) as it has not been remitting its IGR to the federation account contrary to Section 177 of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations (2009).

The report, which was laid two weeks ago but is yet to be considered by the House, also states that Oduah committed contempt of the parliament by approving a sum in the 2014 budget when it has not been presented to the National Assembly, adding: “The minister’s poor supervisory role led NCAA into unilaterally appropriating funds against next year’s budget. The above is an indirect contempt of parliament, even so that the president and commander-in-chief has not submitted to the National Assembly the 2014 Appropriation Bill.”

Going further, the committee indicted Oduah for approving an overinflated contract by approving a sum for the cars which international auto dealers have described as a “rip-off”.

“The minister has not addressed why the NCAA paid a price tag that auto dealers in the US and UK described as ‘a rip-off’.  It is a fact that each of the BMW cars should cost no more than $167,000 which is approximately N36 million.

“Aviation minister approved NCAA’s request to procure 55 operational vehicles valued at N564.665 million; there is no evidence to show that the Hon. Minister presented NCAA’s request to FEC for its approval. Further, the attempt to procure now and pay later is against the extant laws of the federation.”

They therefore recommended that “the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should review the continued engagement of the Hon. Minister for Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, having contravened the 2013 appropriation and approved revised thresholds by exceeding her approval limit of N100m with the purchase of 54 vehicles valued at N643m”.

On the finding of the panel that the cars allegedly purchased were different from the ones they inspected, the legislators recommended that the “Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other relevant anti-corruption agencies further investigate the discrepancies and the chassis number DW68032 of the vehicles on the one reported to be delivered and the one inspected by the committee, and, if found wanting, prosecute all persons/institutions involved in the transaction”.

The report also asks the company from which the cars were purchased, Coscharis Nigeria Limited, to pay the value of the waiver for the two BMW armoured cars, having been found to have lied about the federal government giving it waiver on the cars.

It states: “Coscharis Nigeria Limited should be investigated on the issue of waiver, source and exact cost of the two (2) BMW vehicles supplied to NCAA.  It should be made to pay the waiver value into the treasury account.

“Coscharis Motors Limited claimed that the Federal Ministry of Finance granted it import duty, VAT, ETLS, CISS and port charges waiver to import two (2) bulletproof BMW armoured cars. This claim is false.”

The lawmakers also found that there were: “No copies of advertisements or solicitations for bids published in at least 2 national newspapers and the website of NCAA as well as any procurement journal. No copies of bids submissions registers and duplicate copies of receipts issued to bidders on submission bids. No minutes of public bidding for technical and financial proposals, including list of CSOs and professional observers. No copies of bids evaluation by the sub-technical committees of the Tenders Board, and copies of minutes of meetings of the Tenders Board approving the winning bidder.”