A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the acquisition of 10 fire fighting trucks at a whopping sum of N12 billion by the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

HURIWA’s call followed a tweet by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Abubakar Sirika, disclosing that he has commissioned 10 new fire trucks acquired at the cost of N12 billion for FAAN.

The rights group said the cost of the trucks at N1.2 billion each was humongous and doubted if the procurement of the truck was actually advertised for public participation.

In a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA wondered why EFCC has not even raised suspicions or asked relevant questions over the tweet allegedly made by Sirika, on the newly commissioned fire trucks.

According to the group, the Minister's tweet read: "Just commissioned 10 Firefighting trucks, total cost of over 12Bn Naira. More to come in due course. Safety has been the Buhari focus in Aviation, since 2015. Hitherto FAAN has not bought new trucks in 15 years."

The statement added that “HURIWA considers the Minister’s disclosure as intolerable and an unacceptable show of impunity for a cabinet level Minister, related to President Muhammadu Buhari, to now wants to rub it on our faces and ride roughshod to make this fantastically doubtful claims over costs of fire trucks that by simply browsing on the Internet links of the manufacturer can reveal the real costs.

“Assuming, without conceding, that each of the fire fighting trucks costs the taxpayers a whopping N1.2 billion, HURIWA has demanded a comprehensive investigation because the procurement was shrouded in secrecy, lacking open advertising for all interested stakeholders to freely and equitably participate.”

“It is amazing that alleged large scale corruption and procurement heists are going on amongst Ministers under the President's nose and these ministers publicly quote figures that are so unbelievably out of this world but the EFCC, ICPC will be too scared to ask questions apparently because most of these Ministers, like that of Aviation is said to be related to the President by blood,” the statement noted.

HURIWA therefore berated EFCC for not probing government officials and agencies believed to allegedly swimming in corruption.

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