Sale of NCAT two Bell helicopters followed due process — Rector

The Rector of Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, Captain Alkali Moddibo, has cleared the air on the controversy ranging over news that the college auctioned two Bell 206 helicopters.

Speaking with aviation journalists at the just concluded seventh Aviation Summit in Abuja on Thursday, Captain Moddibo said contrary to insinuations, both the ministries of aviation and works approved of the process leading to the sale of the helicopters.

While dispelling rumours that the aircraft were missing, Modibbo said the training helicopters were disposed of after going through the due process.

“First and foremost, airplanes don’t get missing; if an aircraft takes off, it must land. In the process of landing, the aircraft would be asked so many questions of where it is coming from and going into.

“The two helicopters were acquired by the Federal Government about 12 to 13 years ago during the time of former President Goodluck Jonathan. It was purchased for the purpose of training pilots, but that kind of helicopters, you can’t use them for initial training of pilots. And what the college does is basic training.

”The helicopters have jet engines and with jet engines, it is so expensive that an hour training would take entire Private Pilot Licensing (PPL) on the piston engine airplanes. So, the ministry of aviation decided to sell the helicopters and replace them with piston engine helicopters. The only way you can sell it and get money back is by auction, which is the approved process for selling government properties,” he said.

Recalling how the process started in 2019, the rector cited how the college filed all the papers and requested for approval and evaluation from the ministry, but lamented that it cost the college about N5 billion to maintain the helicopters for 12 years.

”The ministry wanted us to sell it by the bluebook rating, which is the new helicopter prices, but we cannot sell old helicopters using the bluebook pricing. So, we had to request the ministry to look into that issue and we told them that the aircraft have been with us for more than 10 years, redundant in the hangar. Yet, we maintain the helicopters annually to the tune of N500 million to sit in the hangar.

“So, after five years, we have spent about N5 billion in maintaining the two helicopters, yet we don’t use them for training or to source any revenue from it. It is a waste for the college because the helicopters must be serviceable all the time. For the 12 to 13 years period, none of the two helicopters reached 40 hours flying time,” headed.

”We talked to the ministry and the minister agreed and approved the sales of the helicopters and we followed the due process. We wrote to the Ministry, requesting to the Ministry of Works to get valuers to evaluate the helicopters, which was done. The Ministry of Works sent this to approved Federal Government auctioneers who came over and the helicopters were auctioned and at the end of the day, the helicopters were sold to two different companies at about $600,000 each.”

According to Modibbo, if the government had involved NCAT, it would have advised government on the type of aircraft it needed for training.

”We have never trained anybody on helicopters at the college. Probably the past government didn’t seek advice from NCAT and when the government wanted to purchase helicopters for its agencies, it decided to include NCAT. The government then, acquired 10 helicopters for the Nigeria Police, bought for the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and others. The government then considered two Bell 206 helicopters for NCAT.

”If the government had involved NCAT, we would have told them the type of aircraft we can use for training, which is piston engine helicopters, but the Bell 206 you cannot use it for training. Nowhere in the world the helicopter type is used for training. It’s like you using a Boeing 737 aircraft to teach someone how to become a pilot, you don’t do that. That money could have fetched us two Robinson R44 and two R22 helicopters, but I am sure the Federal Government will want to approve probably one R44 and one R22 because of the issue we are having with foreign exchange. R44 is a larger fashion of R22; the R44 has four seats and the R22 has two seats for training.”, he added.