How Aondoakaa sold MMA to Wale Babalakin's Bi-Courtney

In another of the mind-boggling manipulation and corruption stories involving the Attorney General, Saharareporters has found his hand in the controversial handover of the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos.

Mr. Aondoakaa, our impeccable source revealed, took huge bribe money from Mr. Wale Babalakin, the chairman of Bi -Courtney, the company now reputed for building sub-standard structures. Aondoakaa had worked with Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited to grant the company a 36-year concession to run the domestic wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport".



During the Obasanjo's administration, Babalakin got Femi Fani Kayode to recommend that his lease on the airport be extended from 12 years to 36 years, but that proposal was rejected.



In came Aondoakaa, who, after receiving N400 million from Babalakin, got Bi-Courtney to sue his office for breach of contract after claiming that it had the right to manage both the MMA2 and the GAT for 36 years starting from April 2004. Curiously, Bi-Courtney did not include the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) in the lawsuit. That strategy was deliberate. FAAN would have contested the lawsuit, but Aondoakaa's refused to diligently defend his office when put on notice about the suit.



Bi-Courtney then obtained a court judgement allowing it to forcefully take over GAT in a secret ceremony that had the airport workers protesting. The worker’s protests have so far yielded some positive results, as the office of the National Security Adviser has intervened and suspended the Bi-Courtney agreement until Yar'adua returns from his sick bed in Saudi Arabia.



Only last week, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), an umbrella body made up of 35 organizations fighting corruption in the country, joined the growing nationwide clamour for Aondoakaa to be relieved of his position. In a letter to Yar’Adua, it said CACOL had found the Attorney General “to be roguish, corruptible, insensitive and incompetent either as a Minister in any Ministry or (as) the Attorney-General.”



The letter was copied to the President of the Senate; the Speaker of the House of Representatives; the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (the position Aondoakaa officially occupies); the Chairman of the National Judicial Commission; and the President of the Nigerian Bar Association.


Culled from Saharareporters