The Nigerian Navy (NN) says the controversial presidential
yacht is already in Nigeria.
On Friday, Ali Ndume, chief whip of the senate, said the
yacht had been delivered but not paid for.
Speaking with TheCable on Saturday, Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan,
the director of naval information, confirmed that the yacht was “ordered” by
former president Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and has since been delivered
to Nigeria.
“That is correct, it is in Nigeria,” he said.
The federal government had planned to spend N5 billion for
the purchase of a presidential yacht in the supplementary budget. The proposed
sum was under the capital expenditure of the navy’s budget.
The budgetary allocation to the presidential yacht had elicited
outcry from Nigerians, given the prevailing hardship in the country and calls
to cut the cost of governance.
The senate and house of representatives passed the N2
trillion supplementary budget on Thursday, but reallocated the appropriation
for the yacht to the students’ loan programme.
Asked what will happen to the yacht now that the national
assembly has rejected the line item, the naval spokesperson retorted: “Those
are issues that are beyond us”.
“The crux of the matter is that it was ordered under the
previous administration and it was delivered. It was approved but there was no
cash backing,” he said.
“The navy is not using it at all. It was just delivered.
Decisions will have to be taken at all levels. We are just awaiting instructions.”
REPS: WE’LL
INVESTIGATE NAVY OVER PROCUREMENT
Meanwhile, Yusuf Gagdi, chairman of the house of
representatives committee on navy, says the navy will be investigated over the
procurement of the yacht without parliamentary approval.
Gagdi, who was also the chairman of the committee on navy in
the 9th assembly, said he was not aware of the delivery of the yacht to
Nigeria.
“I am not aware — in the four years that I was the chairman
of the committee navy, I was not aware,” he said.
“My committee has expunged that (the appropriation) from the
supplementary budget. It is no more in the supplementary budget.
“The house has asked the committee to investigate. Does navy
procure a presidential yacht without payment and approval for it only for us to
see it on the budget item?
“So we are going to find out what happened that the yacht
was in the country without the provision for it. We are going to investigate.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com