Senate Committee on Air Force has raised the alarm that Nigeria risk losing $493million already paid to the United States of America for the purchase of five Super Tucano fighter planes over bad runway of its various airports airfields.
The Federal Government had paid $493 million in 2018 to the US company to address the Boko Haram insurgency and other security challenges facing the country.
But the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Air Force, Senator Mike Ama Nnachi, informed while presenting budget report of the committee before the Committee on Appropriations that when the Americans came to inspect the Kanji runway, they complained that it does not have capacity to carry the aircrafts.
Senator Nnachi, therefore, stressed the need to make provision for additional N9 billion that will take care of the runway and aircraft so as to prevent Nigeria from loosing the money and the aircrafts.
He said: “It is a very serious issue, they are running around, they have gone to Finance Minister, they have gone to the CBN, they have gone to Senate President. The money needed is not part of the main budget.
“Nigeria has already paid $493 million for the aircraft, and the officials of American company who came to Nigeria last week said that the Kanji runway is not capable to carry that fighter jets and that Nigeria will forfeit the aircrafs. They mentioned about three countries which had been affected with that.”
In his response, chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Jibrin Barau assured that his committee will look inward to make funds available to address the issue in the 2021 budget.
