Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State said his government has discovered a state-owned legacy 600 aircraft allegedly abandoned in Germany by his predecessor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
The governor made this known on Tuesday when he led a delegation of Rivers’ leaders to General Atomics Aerotec in Munich, Germany.
According to Wike, the discovery was made through intelligence, adding that the aircraft, which was purchased in 2003, was flown and abandoned in the European country since 2012 without any documentation.
Wike, while describing the action of the immediate past administration as unconscionable, disclosed that his government has spent over €3 million to fix and retrieve the aircraft.
“When we came into office in 2015, we never had an idea that our plane was in your facility. It was a matter of asking questions before we got the information that Legacy 600 belonging to our state is in RUAG, before General Atomics.”
Wike thanked the German authorities for accepting to take them through the process of recovering the aircraft and for not hiding anything from the Rivers State Government.
“This plane was bought in 2003 by the government of Dr Peter Odili, and by 2007, he handed it over to the next government, which was my predecessor’s, now, Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi. While he was in office, by 2012, this plane was brought here. Reasons we do not know,” he added.
“The issue is, why was there no documentation to let the incoming government know that the facility was sent to RUAG for inspection?” Wike queried.
