The Senate on Thursday denied approving the purchase of a new presidential jet for President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, countering speculations to that effect.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio clarified during a plenary session that no such request had been made, calling the rumors “mere anticipatory blackmail.”
Akpabio’s remarks came in response to Senate Leader Sen. Opeyemi Bamidele’s observations about purported support for procuring a new presidential aircraft. Akpabio suggested that a fifth columnist was attempting to destabilize the parliament.
Speculations had emerged that the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence had urged the Federal Government to purchase new airplanes for Tinubu and Shettima, following a subcommittee’s assessment of the Presidential Air Fleet’s airworthiness.
However, Akpabio dispelled these claims while addressing journalists in Maiduguri. He stated, “I want to dispel the rumour that the Senate President said he will buy a new plane for the President and his Vice, irrespective of the fact that Nigerians are hungry or whatever. I never said that. I was actually in Zanzibar, Tanzania. It is the handiwork of propagandists and fifth columnists, who never see anything good in what we are doing.”
Akpabio urged Nigerians to have patience and faith in the Tinubu-Shettima administration, promising that it would bring wealth and prosperity to the country.
