“The PDP is still failing the basic mathematics,” a
political analyst told SaharaReporters.
“They can squander all of the money in the Central Bank trying to damage
the reputation of everyone in the opposition, but how does that provide a cover
for the ineptitude and corruption of the Goodluck Jonathan government? Does that explain why Nigeria is far worse
than they found it? That is the question
Nigerians will be answering when they go to the polls in three weeks.”
SaharaReporters has obtained documents relating to a
scandalously inflated $500 million defense contract that President Goodluck
Jonathan awarded to Arthur Eze, a Nigerian businessman with a shady past, a
close friend of the president and his wife, and a major financier of the ruling
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Our security sources said some officers of the
Nigerian Air Force (NAF) were furious over the jumbo contract described by one
source as “a pure waste.” The sources, most of them military personnel, told
our correspondent that, in addition to its sheer extravagance, the contract has
also saddled the Nigerian military with helicopters that have limited or no
combat utility.
The documents obtained by our correspondent reveal
that Mr. Eze, the chief executive of Triax, received the gigantic sum of $466.5
million in order to weaponize six Puma helicopters with the aid of an Israeli
company named Elbit Systems. This meant that each weaponized helicopter cost
close to $78 million. “For the price of each helicopter provided by Engineer
Arthur Eze, the Air Force could have acquired seven top grade military
helicopters,” said one of our sources.
