•House summons Amaechi, 4 ex-PDP chieftains
The House of Representatives ad-hoc Committee on Rail Transport Contracts has summoned four former chairmen of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) to appear before it on Thursday over an alleged N1 trillion rail contracts scam.
Those summoned include three former chairmen of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and another who had served as chairman and board member of the NRC
They are Bamanga Tukur, Abubakar Kawu Baraje, Haliru Bello and Amb. Ladan Shuni. The former chairmen of NRC are expected to render accounts of their stewardship.
According to the chairman of the committee, Hon. Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma (PDP, Edo), the investigation is not to witch-hunt anybody, but to let Nigerians know how their taxes are spent.
“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,” he said.
The House had on October 14 this year mandated its Committee on Transport to probe contracts awarded for the rehabilitation of rail tracks, standard gauge, bridges, coaches, wagons and locomotives between 2010 and 2014.
The motion on NRC and its contractors was sequel to a move by Hon. Solomon Ahwinawhi (PDP/Delta) entitled, ‘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.
Ahwinawhi said the level of performance with respect to the 463km Port Harcourt-Makurdi rail track rehabilitation of the eastern line with N19,963,752,330, out of which NRC has paid N4,017,054,841, while SURE -P paid N5,594,021,377 and only about 3km of ballast has been done with 400km left undone and the total money released 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,” he said.
According to him, the Lagos-Jebba track rehabilitation project was awarded for N12, 293,390 contract with the payments made so far at N11, 699, 999,218, without any tangible work done, adding that the same goes for Jebba-Kano.
The Sun.
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