Protesters Disrupt Award Of Honour To Aviation Minister Stella Oduah In London

PROTESTERS disrupted a Nigerian awards
ceremony in central London last night expressing
anger at the awarding of an honour to aviation
minister Stella Oduah by the Global Peace
Movement (GPM).

Drama at awards ceremomy at Raddison Hotel in London as protesters disrupt award of honour to Stella Oduah by Mike Uyi's Global Peace Movement. Kaduna State governor Mukhtar Yero just calmly sits through it all

At a glitzy ceremony at the Radisson Blu Portman
Hotel in London, the GPM conferred awards on
Ms Oduah, the Kaduna State governor Mukhtar
Yero and Nnamdi Udoh, the managing director of
the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency.
Halfway through the ceremony though, protests
broke out as several protesters felt it was
inappropriate to be honouring Ms Oduah.
Apart from the fact that Ms Oduah is under
investigation over the purchase two bullet-proof
BMW's valued at $1.6m, protesters said she
should also be held culpable for the recent spate
of air crashes in Nigeria. President Goodluck
Jonathan is under pressure to sack Ms Oduah
over the car purchases, which were said to have
been bought surreptitiously and she is due to face
the Senate to answer questions about air safety.
Marian Awolowo of the campaign group Nigerian
Global Awakening, one of the protesters who
disrupted the ceremony, said: "The management
of the aviation industry should be questioned
because we have had a spate of air crashes
recently and the minister is under investigation for
fraud. With thousands of people still grieving, it is
not the right time to be giving Stella Oduah a
peace award and I told Mike Uyi to postpone it.
"It is very insensitive and an abuse to all the
victims and their families of the Dana Air crash to
be giving Ms Oduah a peace award of all things.
We Nigerians are not that wicked, do not worship
money that much and are not that low."
Governor Yero was there in person to receive his
award from the GPM president Michael Uyi but
Ms Oduah and Mr Udoh sent representatives.
Victor Oche Elias, Ms Oduah's special adviser put
up a spirited defence in support of his boss,
saying she was not responsible for the accidents
as they were mainly down to pilot error and
added that the cars were bought for the safety of
visiting dignitaries.
Mr Elias added: "I am a trained aviator myself
and I can tell you that 70% of air accidents are
down to pilot error. In the case of the Dana Air
accident, the pilot knew there was a fault and
should have returned to Abuja but continued
flying on to Lagos because he wanted to catch a
flight to India for a wedding.
"As per the cars, they are not for the minister's
personal use. Recently, the head of the
International Civil Aviation Organisation visited
Nigeria and refused to step out of the plane until
a bullet proof car was provided for him."
After a series of heated exchanges, the protesters
were later removed on the instructions of the
GPM president Mr Uyi and the awards ceremony
continued. Mr Uyi said he was not bothered with
the protests as the GPM investigates whoever it
gives awards to properly and is always certain
that they are deserving of such honours.
He added: "We are never perturbed because we
always carry out a full investigation into a person
before conferring an award upon them. The GPM
is known to take risks in carrying out it
assessments and we even went to Iraq to inspect
their presidential palaces when it was claimed
there were weapons of mass destruction there."
Accepting his award, Governor Yero said he
believed it was a vindication of what his
administration is trying to achieve in Kaduna
State by restoring peace and making it an
investment destination. According to governor, his
government is also trying to empower local
people through youth and women's programmes
whereby they are given capital to start
commercial operations.
Governor Yero added: "Kaduna is now an
investment-friendly state in sectors such as
agriculture, tourism, power, mining, solid minerals,
housing and transportation. One of the things we
have done is guarantee the safety of such
investment and made the state a conducive
environment for investors."
According to the governor, he is also in London to
discuss a £500m investment programme in the
state agricultural sector by a British investor. He
added that the state is making some progress
because it is currently enjoying peace among the
disparate religious and ethnic groups that make
up its populace.