Former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, has denied spending N100 billion on the Nigeria Air project under the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

He said: “It is a lie that I spent N100 billion, and it was lost in the process. The total budget for the national carrier was N5bn, the total amount released was N3 billion, and I left the ministry with over N1 billion.”

“We went through every single step of the ICRC process, and we got it to the end, and we had an airline.”

“Some people went to court, Airspeace, United and Azman went to court to say that we cannot, as a government, establish an airline while we take a stake of five per cent, and that is what stalled it.”

“If there was no court case and if the government had come in and pursued the court case by today, we would have had the airline.”

For those who don’t know, former Minister Hadi Sirika left office in 2023 and is currently facing trial for alleged corruption and abuse of office.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused him of awarding multi-billion naira contracts to companies linked to his family members, including his daughter, Fatima Sirika and his son-in-law, Jalal Hamma.