Buhari’s ‘Big Jet Under Repair’, Reason For London Stopover – Presidency

The Presidency, on Thursday, clarified that President Muhammadu Buhari had to stop over in London while returning to the country from the United States because his “big jet is under repair”.

Garba Shehu, the president’s special assistant on media and publicity, made the clarification few hours after telling newsmen that the President Buhari and his team made a “technical stopover” in the British capital.

Speaking to State House correspondents afterwards, Shehu said what he meant by a technical stopover was such that the presidential fleet “stops at a point, refuel, do some checks and then proceed on the journey.”

This, the presidential aide said, was because the president’s main aircraft was undergoing repairs, hence his principal made the United States trip using a smaller jet.

“The big jet is under repair. It has been taken for major repairs. So the president is using a small plane and there is a limit to the distance the small plane can cover,” said Shehu.

He that, “It is a routine thing. The plane can do Abuja-Washington, that’s about 12 hours and the maximum the plane can fly is 12 hours, 40 minutes. But you don’t need to push it to the edge.”