The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Congress have kicked against the N55bn allocated in the 2025 budget for the maintenance of the presidential fleet.
This is contained in the 2025 Appropriation Bill sent to the National Assembly for approval.
If approved by the lawmakers, over N55.5bn will be spent on total overhauling of three aircraft engines in the presidential fleet, including fuelling, fumigation, air navigation, cleaning, and other maintenance of the presidential fleet.
“Apples Bite Magazine” reports that the entire aviation ministry’s 2025 budget stands at N105,953,496,365..
The budget, which was scrutinised by our correspondent, showed that the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development has N71,123,368,069; the Nigerian Meteorological Agency gets N9,819,554,829, while N7,975,364,319 goes to the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria.
Others are the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau, with N10,035,209,148, and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, which was allocated N7,000,000,000.
Meanwhile, at least N19.43bn was spent on the maintenance and operations of the Presidential Air Fleet from July 2023 to September 2024, The PUNCH gathered.
Checks by our correspondent on GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses the Federal Government’s spending, showed that the payouts amounted to N13.55bn in 2024, representing 66 per cent of the allocations for the fleet in the fiscal year.
The yet-to-be-passed budget showed that N8,646,336,653 bn was earmarked for the repair of air navigational equipment, while N5,514,000,000 was set aside for an engine overhaul of one of the aircraft in the presidential fleet with the registration number 5N-FGW.
The document further stated that two other engines will be overhauled with the sum of N3,132,336.65.
The government also planned to spend N8,646,336,653 on air navigational equipment, with N1,550,000,000 proposed for aircraft fuel cost in 2025 and another N1,255,700,000 for aircraft maintenance in the presidential fleet, among others.
Besides, the sum of N149,000,000 was appropriated for security operations (overhead) and an additional N7,500,000 for cleaning and fumigation services for the presidential fleet.
The sum of N311,145,300 was set aside for insurance premiums for aircraft.
Madukwe B. Nwabuisi is an accomplished journalist renown for his fearless reporting style and extensive expertise in the field. He is an investigative journalist, who has established himself as a kamikaze reporter.
