Garba Shehu: Buhari wants to sell aircraft to fulfil his campaign promise

Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, says by ordering the sale of two aircraft in the presidential fleet, President Muhammadu Buhari has fulfilled one of his campaign promises.

Explaining that the move was meant to check waste, Shehu said soon, some aircraft in the fleet would be handed over to the air force.

He said the president was only interested in keeping aircraft that he, his vice and other government officials that go on special missions would use.

The presidency had advertised the sale of the jets, instructing bidders to quote in dollars.

“The newspaper advertisements for the sale of two presidential aircraft, a Falcon 7x executive jet and Hawker 4000 were duly authorised by the presidency,” he said in a statement.

“This is in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari that aircraft in the presidential air fleet be reduced to cut down on waste.

“When he campaigned to be President, the then APC candidate Muhammadu Buhari, if you recall, promised to look at the presidential air fleet with view to cutting down on waste.

“His directive to a government committee on this assignment is that he liked to see a compact and reliable aircraft for the safe airlift of the president, the vice-president and other government officials that go on special missions.

“This exercise is by no means complete. I am sure the commander of the presidential air fleet will any time from now, call you to a ceremony at which he will hand over some other aircraft to the Air Force for their operations.”