A human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) on Sunday took a swipe on the Presidency over attempt to justify the use of Presidential Jet by President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, Hanan for private purposes.
Defending the use of the Jet, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, had said that by tradition all members of the first family have the right to use the presidential jet for private engagements.
However, Mr Falana, in a statement on Sunday, said that Mr Buhari’s children have no right whatsoever to use any jet on the presidential fleet.
According to him, the use of the President’s jet for personal use is an abuse of office.
“With respect, the statement credited to the Presidency is incorrect as it is at variance with the official policy of the Federal Government.
“In other words, the official policy does not authorise the children of the President to use the presidential jets to attend to private social functions.
“In fact, there is no precedent whatsoever for such privatisation of the presidency of Nigeria.
“Having publicly declared that his administration would maintain ‘a compact and reliable aircraft for the safe airlift of the President, the Vice-President and other government officials that go on special missions’ President Buhari is stopped from allowing members of the first family to use the jets for their private affairs,” Mr Falana said.
The human rights lawyer, therefore, called on Mr Buhari to reduce the cost of governance, especially the number of planes in the presidential fleet.
“In view of the foregoing, we call on President Buhari to stop the members of his family from using any of the aircraft in the presidential fleet with a view to cutting down on waste.
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“A country that is said to be the headquarters of the greatest number of poverty-stricken people in the world cannot afford to waste billions of naira on the use of presidential aircraft and hiring of commercial jets by state governors that are owing workers several months of unpaid salaries,” Mr Falana added.
 on Sunday took a swipe on the Presidency over attempt to justify the use of Presidential Jet by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, Hanan for private purposes.){kind=link}