To Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond thriller, Goldfinger, “once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, while three times is enemy action.”
In Nigeria, the third major car supply business between Coscharis Motors Limited and the federal government known to the people has been eliciting wide controversy, and even angst from the general public, though nobody has yet borrowed Goldfinger’s strong “enemy action” term to describe the wheel deal.
Coscharis Motors, owned by billionaire Cosmas Maduka, was the dealer that recently supplied the two armoured BMW 760 Li HSS cars to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), for use of embattled Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah. The ministry and the NCAA had, in the face of incriminatingly genuine transaction documents, inescapably admitted that the latter purchased the two cars at a total cost of N225,150,000 ($1,593,687.31).
The two black BMW Li HSS 2008 model were manufactured in Germany with chassis numbersWBAHP41050DW68032 and WBAHP41010DW68044.
Angry Reactions: Nigerians have been condemning the transaction, describing it as highly questionable, especially after enquiries from international dealers of the particular car exposed the price of each to be not more than between $160,000 and $200,000 only.
For instance, the armoured car ballistic division of the International Armoring Corporation in Centerville, Utah and Vista BMW in Coconut Creek, Florida, both in the USA, informed that a similar fully armoured BMW 760 Li HSS car built to withstand AK 47-7.62×39 ammunition and lower calibre weapons could be shipped to Nigeria, cost, insurance and freight, for not more than between $162.190 and $200,000 only.
Both estimates quadruple, and are a far contentious difference from the $796,846.21 cost that the Aviation Minister/NCAA and Cosharis Motors collaborated to spend of public funds to buy not one, but two of the cars, for Oduah’s use.
Going by the public outrage that has attended the latest car sale by Coscharis to the NCAA, especially as it affects the alleged highly-inflated prices, Nigerians seem to be concluding it as one questionable deal too many by the car dealer with top government officials, using public funds.
Coscharis had on two major occasions been thrown up for public scrutiny over BMW car supplies to federal government’s agencies.
In 2003, when Nigeria hosted the 8th All-Africa Games (COJA Abuja 2003), Coscharis Motors was in the thick of impropriety allegations over its supply of 900 units of the BMW brand, especially the then expensive 5i and 7i series to the games organising committee, headed by Amos Adamu, then Director of Sports in the Sports Ministry.
According to Adamu, the cars came ex-gratia as BMW put all 900 units of the product at COJA’s disposal without a kobo cost to the organising body. The manufacturers, BMW AG of Germany offered, the organising committee maintained, COJA $1.5 million financial support to boot.
But critics argued BMW AG and Coscharis couldn’t have been so charitable as to freely give away 900 units of such expensive cars without some financial gains accruing to them. The BMW sponsorship, they maintained, was contrived in such a way that robbed the Federal Government of huge revenues.
Adamu refuted that argument, saying, “It is a protocol agreement that every sponsorship material comes in duty-free as part of the host government’s guarantee for hosting the sporting events.”
Government’ and Coscharis’ inability to produce documents: Coscharis Motors also called a press conference to refute insinuations that the deal was untoward. The company’s owner and president, Maduka, said his firm’s sponsorship was driven by business advantages which their competitors failed to see. But neither Coscharis Motors nor COJA availed journalists the relevant documents to support their claims.
As the car dealer and the federal government also didn’t bother to produce documents when the former decided to play “father Christmas” again when it claimed it was freely offering 200 units of a mix of BMW, Honda and Jaguar cars for use at the 7th African First Ladies for Peace Mission (AFLPM) summit hosted by wife of the president, Patience Jonathan in Abuja between July 24 and 27, 2012. The cars comprised 80 units of BMW X3 and X5 series with a market value of N13.5 million each, while the remaining 120 are exotic models of Honda, Jaguar and others
There was nationwide condemnation of what the media reported as federal government’s purchase of the cars, especially at a time, as described by the Publicity Secretary of the old Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Engineer Rotimi Fashakin, “many states of the Federation are on a shoe-string budget because of the depressed economy, with the May (2012) allocations not fully released to them”. Fashakin dismissed the entire AFLPM event as “a rather feckless and utterly profligate jamboree,”
But Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, in a statement from the Presidency, described the purchase report as “utterly false and misleading.” Abati stated that Coscharis Motors merely “offered to provide some cars for the event at no cost to the organisers or the Federal Government of Nigeria” as part of the car dealer’s “own contributions to the successful hosting of the summit.”
The President’s aide added that “under an agreement signed by the committee and Coscharis Motors, all the cars will be returned to the company after the summit.” He argued that “the authors of the report were aware that they had no facts to support the claim that the Federal Government bought the cars in question.” The Presidency didn’t provide any document either to support its claim. Neither party also informed the public after the summit whether Coscharis Motors re-possessed all the vehicles it claimed to have offered for the event only for the durational use, and didn’t show the public any document to that effect.
coscharis mum on third car deal: Coscharis Motors would not be third-time lucky with the public in its third major car deal with a federal government’s body, as it relates to shielding the vital transaction documents from public scrutiny. Saharareporters, the online medium that exposed the Oduah armoured BMW car deal, was able to grab all the relevant documents that incontrovertibly revealed details of the transaction.
The documents are apparently an albatross to the car dealers. This time, the Coscharis Motors management has been keeping mum on the transaction, unlike in its past two controversial car-supply deals with the federal government, when it came out to explain it was just being magnanimous. The company’s General Manager for Corporate Services, Mr. Abiona Babarinde, wouldn’t comment when the Sunday Trust spoke with him last weekend.
The Aviation Ministry and the NCAA management have been fuming over availability of the documents in public domain. Last Friday in Abuja, the NCAA Director-General Folayele Akinkuotu, unabashedly told journalists that the ministry was in pursuit of one Nicholas Edwards, its member of staff who allegedly leaked the information to journalists. Edwards, Akinkuotu declared, was on the run.
Source: Daily Trust
