It was learnt that his main private jet was undergoing rehabilitation and a second aircraft he was travelling on developed a fault in the Netherlands, sources told the newspaper.
President Bola Tinubu was forced to travel to Saudi Arabia on a charter flight at the weekend for the ongoing World Economic Forum in Riyadh from the Netherlands, according to the Peoples Gazette.
It was learnt that his main private jet was undergoing rehabilitation and a second aircraft he was travelling on developed a fault in the Netherlands, sources told the newspaper.
The Nigerian leader arrived in The Hague on April 23 from Nigeria for a series of economic and diplomatic engagements at the instance of Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Peoples Gazette reports that the Nigerian President learnt shortly before he was scheduled to depart the Netherlands on Friday that his plane had suffered unspecified problems, one of which an official identified as including an oxygen leak.
The president and his delegation left the presidential aircraft behind and opted for a charter jet company to take them to Saudi Arabia for the forum, arriving on Friday night.
The aircraft, a Gulfstream G550 class, was originally dedicated to Vice-President Kashim Shettima. SaharaReporters learnt that it was the aircraft also used by former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
However, according to Peoples Gazette, the president used it on his foreign trip because his dedicated carrier, the Boeing 737 business jet class operated by the Nigerian Air Force 001, has been under maintenance for several weeks.
On March 25, the plane was taken to a maintenance facility at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, a commercial administrative region jointly controlled by France, Germany, and Switzerland. As of Saturday night, it had not been returned to Nigeria.
The Gulfstream jet was later fixed and sent to Saudi Arabia, where it is now waiting to return the president to Nigeria after his official trip on April 29, The Gazette reported.
Checks by SaharaReporters also revealed that the Gulfstream G550 marked 5N-FGW was parked at Riyadh International Airport in Saudi Arabia at the time of filing this report.
While President Tinubu according to a video posted by Channels Television got to the oil-rich country around 7 pm on Friday, April 26, 2024, the presidential jet left Rotterdam around the same time and got to Riyadh airport at about 2 am on Saturday, April 27, 2024.
This suggests that the aircraft was later fixed and sent to Saudi Arabia to return the President to Nigeria.
Also, further checks revealed that the Nigerian Air Force 1, a Boeing Business Jet (Boeing 737-700) marked 5N-FGT has been parked at Euro Airport in Germany since March 25, 2024.
This means by Saturday, April 27, the Tinubu-led government had paid €165,000 as a parking fee for the aircraft.
The amount accounts for the aircraft’s parking charges for 33 days, at the rate of €5,000 per day.
The presidential jet was moved from Zaria to Germany for repairs.
Another jet in the presidential fleet, a Falcon 7X jet (5N-FGV) is also in France.
The aircraft arrived in Paris on April 22 from Istanbul, Turkey.
However, SaharaReporters could not ascertain why the presidential jet was taken to France, at the time of filing this report.
In the last one year, President Tinubu visited the country multiple times for medical attention and to see his doctors.