Prof. Yemi Osinbajo
Sources within the Presidency has revealed why Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo flew in a chartered Caverton helicopter that crash landed over
the weekend.
Inquiries by The Guardian confirmed that the presidential fleet had been depleted.
Consequently, it could not cater for the daily itinerary of the
president and his deputy, especially during this period of
electioneering.
Stakeholders though saw nothing wrong with the decision, they,
however, queried due diligence, safety precautions and expertise of the
crew.
This comes as the management of the airline attributed the near-mishap to bad weather.
A 15-seater Augusta AW139 medium-sized twin-engine facility was
conveying the vice president and his team to Kabba, Kogi State when it
crash-landed. While the aircraft was damaged, all occupants escaped
unhurt.
Sources at the Ministry of State for Aviation said the presidential
fleet has “no sufficient aircraft for multiple local travels.”
“The capacity has lately been reduced to about six, even some
of these are not in use due to routine maintenance schedule. That may
explain why the presidential fleet is borrowing aircraft,” a top official disclosed.
The presidency, had in 2016, resorted to penny-pinching measures, putting up two of the 10 planes in its fleet for sale.
The move, according to the Senior Special Assistant (Media and
Publicity) to the President, Garba Shehu, was to check waste. The
facilities were, as at 2014, costing the nation N1.52 billion to
maintain and another N1billion for aviation fuel.
The presidential fleet was then the second largest owned by any nationwide, coming closely behind Arik Air that had 23 aircraft.
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