The Senate was stunned Monday when revelations emerged that N120billion of public funds sunk into the aviation sector went down the drain, including an alleged diversion of N34billion by business mogul and owner of defunct AirNigeria, Jimoh Ibrahim to his personal account.

The Senate accordingly queried the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for its inability to explain how such huge amount of money dispensed by it could be diverted without fulfilling the purposes for which the monies were doled out.

These transpired Monday at a hearing by the Senate committees on Aviation and Anti-corruption probing how beneficiaries of the N120 billion released to the Aviation sector as part of a N500 billion intervention fund by the Federal Government in 2011 was expended.

The N120 billion was allocated to the aviation sector as bailout for ailing airlines.

CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, who was represented by a senior official, Mudashiru Olaitan, said only N39.5 billion from the N120 billion has been recovered while the remaining N81.2 billion was still outstanding.

He however admitted that some of the ten airlines that benefitted from the fund are now moribund or have out rightly folded up contrary to the goal of the bailout.

Mr. Olaitan listed the beneficiary airlines which folded up as AirNigeria and Chanchangi Airlines while noting that Arik, Dana, Aero, Kabo, Overland, and First Nation are still in operation on the strength of the funds received.

When probed specifically on why the airlines folded up despite the intervention fund, he said the responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the fund by the beneficiaries was that of the Bank of Industry (BOI ) being the facilitator of the loans.

But a former Finance Director of now defunct AirNigeria, Mr. John Nnorom told the hearing that diversion of the fund to other ventures by Jimoh Ibrahim led to the collapse of the Airline.

According to him, “the N34.5 billion drawn from the fund by the Airline, was diverted to other personal business by the owner of the Airline, Jimoh Ibrahim.

“The very moment the N34.5 billion intervention fund was paid into the Airline’s account with United Bank for Africa (UBA), it disappeared into one of the private accounts of the owner without any amount from the fund injected into the Airline, paving the way for its eventual collapse.”

Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, told the committee that his ministry and agencies under it, based on available records, were not aware of the fund and how it was disbursed. ORDERPAPER.NG