Contrary to reports that it spent over five billion naira on ten presidential jets, the presidency has said that only a little above two billion has been spent on its air fleet from May till date.
“Eagle One” – Buhari’s presidential Boeing 737 Business Jet
The presidency in a statement made at Abuja on Tuesday,November 17, said that the money spent was used on maintenance of the presidential air fleet.
Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant to the president (media and Publicity), expressed displeasure for what he described as a “fictional report” that has discredited the current administration all over the media.
Shehu said: “The government is focused on solving the many major issues our country faces in the areas of the economy, corruption and security. Yet almost every week, the presidency has to also deal with the distractions which do nothing but distract from the task of government.”
The presidential aide in referring to documents he had requested from the operational office of the presidential fleet, stressed that after his attention was drawn to the speculative report, said the sum of N2.3 billion was released to the Presidential Air Fleet (PAF) by the office of the Accountant General of the federation.
He noted that the sum covered expenses between May and November 2015.
The expenses include releases for personnel cost, overhead and capital expenditure out of the sum of N5,190,381,386.00 appropriated for PAF on the 2015 budget.
It will be recalled that investigation by the Punch alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had spent about N5.8bn on the 10-aircraft presidential air fleet it received from the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan.
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