The Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and four other former chairmen of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) have been summoned by the House of Representatives ad-hoc Committee on Rail Transport Contracts for alleged N1 trillion rail contracts scam.
Among the invitees are three former chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a former chairman and board member of the corporation. The invitees whose names were given as: Bamanga Tukur, Abubakar Kawu Baraje, Haliru Bello and Amb. Ladan Shuni, are expected to appear before the House on Thursday, December 10.
The Sun reports that the invited former chairmen of NRC are expected to give detailed accounts of their chairmanship tenure in the period under review.
Speaking on the development, the committee chairmen, Hon. Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma (PDP, Edo), said the probe is not aimed at witch-hunting anybody, but to show to Nigerians how their tax monies are being used.
“In the court of law you are innocent until proven guilty. We will adhere to fair hearing, but anyone found wanting, will be exposed. This Eighth National Assembly is committed to putting Nigeria first in legislative duties as well performing oversight function.
“Like I said earlier, this rail contract probe is not primarily designed to rubbish anybody, but we must unearth how every kobo was spent and let Nigerians know how it was spent.
“The first investigative hearing starts on Thursday and we’ve invited all stakeholders to come and tell us all they know on this matter. The Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, was also invited to tell us all he knows though he just assumed office, but you know government is a continuum,” Agbonayinma said.
Recall that the House on October 14 directed its Committee on Transport to investigate probe contracts awarded for the rehabilitation of rail tracks, standard gauge, bridges, coaches, wagons and locomotives between 2010 and 2014.
The directive was the outcome of the motion move by Hon. Solomon Ahwinawhi (PDP/Delta) titled: “Need to investigate the Ministry of Transport and the Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, on the award of contracts for rehabilitation of railway tracks, maintenance of bridges and procurement/rehabilitation of coaches and locomotives from 2010-2014.”
The lawmaker said his curiosity was stirred up following the performance level of the 463km Port Harcourt-Makurdi rail track rehabilitation of the Eastern line with N19, 963, 752, 330, out of which NRC had paid N4, 017, 054, 841, while SURE-P paid N5, 594, 021, 377. He said only about 3km of ballast has been completed with 400km left undone and the total money disbursed so far is N9, 611, 076, 218.
“The Abuja-Kaduna rail project had 841 million US dollars as the project cost, out of which the China EXIM Bank provided a loan of $500 million with about 25 percent of the project completed, when the entire project was envisaged to have been completed in 2014,”Ahwinawhi said.
The Delta representative further stated that the Lagos-Jebba track rehabilitation project was awarded at the cost of N12, 293, 390, adding that the money so far paid for the contract is N11, 699, 999,218, without any noticeable work done. He said the same situation goes for Jebba-Kano.
The Nigerian Railway Corporation started in 1898, when the first railroad in the country was built by the British colonial government. The Lagos Government Railway and the Baro-Kano Railway were amalgamated on October 3, 1912, commencing a nationwide rail service under the name Government Department of Railways.
The country is still striving to make railway service one of its effective means of transportation, especially in states like Lagos and Abuja were you have frustrating gridlock traffic.
President Muhammadu Buhari in one of his most recent trip aside the country was said to have scheduled a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a follow up from their discussion which took place on the side-lines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in November in New York. The crux of the said meeting was how to set up an ultra modem railway service in the country.
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