The state Governor, Nyesom Wike has said he has retrieved & repaired an abandoned aircraft owned by the state government.
According to the government, the aircraft was abandoned in Germany by Rotimi Amachi ten years ago and the state government has spent over a billion naira to repair the aircraft.
Wike made this disclosure said it was unconscionable for the immediate past administration to have “surreptitiously” taken a state-owned asset to Germany and abandoned same there without any form of documentation.
Governor Wike, who led a delegation of Rivers leaders to General Atomics Aerotec in Munich, Germany, where the aircraft had been abandoned for ten years, said efforts to repair and retrieve the aircraft has cost the State government over Three Million Euros (about N1,403,670,000).
Speaking during a meeting with the General Manager, Business Development, General Atomics Aerotec, Markus Froetschi, Governor Wike explained that his administration in a bid to recover State assets, had through intelligence discovered that the Legacy 600 jet purchased by the Dr. Peter Odili’s administration was in Germany.
“When we came into office in 2015, we never had an idea that our plane was in your facility. It was a matter of asking questions before we got the information that Legacy 600 belonging to our State is in RUAG, before General Atomics. We tried to make contact with you and you obliged. So, we want to sincerely thank you for not hiding anything from us because it is the property of the State government.
“This plane was bought in 2003 by the government of Dr Peter Odili, and by 2007 he had handed over to the next government which was my predecessor, now, Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi. While he was in office, by 2012 this plane was brought here. Reasons we do not know.”
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