Helicopter procurement: Our story, by Lagos Govt

Lagos State Government, on Tuesday, described as false and misleading a report that it re-purchased helicopters bought by the immediate past administration of Babatunde Fashola.
Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde, said it was illogical for the government to purchase an helicopter from itself.
He said: “How could a government purchase an helicopter from itself? Is that logical? For the records, Lagos State Government never said it purchased three helicopters. We could not have purchased three brand new helicopters for N4.8bn which was the cost of the entire donations made to the Rapid Response Squad (RRS).
“What we did was to donate three helicopters to the RRS to fight crime. The three included one from the two purchased by the former administration after it was refurbished. The other one from the former administration was traded-in to the manufacturers in exchange for a brand new one and we purchased a brand new one separately, making three.
“Getting the cost of a brand new helicopter is readily available on the net and should not be a subject of conjecture. Rather than continue to use the two old helicopters for commercial services as was being done, what we did was to donate all three (two new and one refurbished) to the RRS to fight crime! Facts are sacred”.