Presidency denies 'PMB order for sale of Presidential Aircrafts'.

Contrary to reports that President Muhammadu Buhari had ordered the
immediate disposal of nine of the 11 VIP transport aircraft in the presidential
fleet, the presidency on Friday denied knowledge of any such directive.

This day had reported that the president had directed the selling of
serviceable and unserviceable aircrafts to cut maintenance costs in line with
the government’s policy to drastically reduce its annual expenditure.Eight of
the planes in the fleet, including Boeing 737, two Gulfstream 550 jets,
Gulfstream V jet, two Falcon 7X planes, the Hawker Siddeley aircraft and
Augusta Westland chopper, the report said, are reserved strictly for the
president’s movement.

Other aircrafts, including two Falcon 900 planes, the Dornier, the Cessna
Citation, the Beechracft King Air, and two AugustaWestland choppers, are
reserved for the airlifting of the Vice-President, Senate President, Speaker of
the House of Representatives, Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as visiting
African heads of states.

But the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba
Shehu,who spoke to Premium Times on Friday, denied the reports. Mr. Shehu
said if anything like that was being contemplated, the Presidency would issue
a statement through its official channels to announce it.

“The story of the order for the sale of aircrafts in the Presidential Fleet, about
which so much interest is being expressed, is not known to us,” Mr. Shehu
said.