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The House of Representatives has formally written the South African and Turkish Embassies for information about the some companies involved in the N41.2 billion railway contracts being investigated by the Adhoc Committee investigating the multi-billion naira railway project executed by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration.
Johnson Agbonayinma, chairman of the Adhoc Committee disclosed this at a press briefing while giving update on the ongoing investigation into the award of the railway projects.
According to him, the South African Consortium: Ansaldo – A3&O Limited, A3 & O Wireless Limited, Gear Holdings and Ansaldo South Africa were invited in connection with the N10 billion contract to upgrade the signaling and telecom system in the narrow gauge.
Likewise, the Turkish consortium comprising of: Eser Contracting & Industry Company Inc.; Eser West Africa Limited and Eser Nigeria Contracting Company Limited was invited in connection with N19 billion contract for the rehabilitation of Port-Harcourt to Makurdi narrow gauge line.
He also observed that the Committee could not locate the office of Costain West Africa Plc which was invited in connection with N12.2 billion contract for rehabilitation of Jebba-Kano narrow gauge line, despite frantic effort to deliver the letter of invitation.
Agbonayinma who commended the efforts made by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) so far, said: “I believe nobody is bigger than Nigeria. Some of them are foreign companies that have embassies here and we have written them, some of them who have collected several billions of Nigerian money and of course running away with it, we will never accept it.
“We will do everything necessary within the law to make sure those found wanting will be brought to book. To be honest with you, with the submissions we have received so far, there are discrepancies even from Attorney General who gave us an insight into what took place, how much money was expended, the level of job performance and even recommended that some of the contractors should refund billions back because of their failure to adhere to the contracts which they entered into. The records are there, we have documents saying some of the contractors did not meet up to standard” Agbonayinma said.
The committee also threatened to arrest the Managing Director of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) and chief Executive officers of eight companies involved in the N41.2 billion contracts as well as six others that would be invited in the second phase of the investigation.
Agbonayinma disclosed that there were discrepancies from the report of the Auditor General who issues queries and threatened to issue a bench warrant against 14 companies for failure to appear before the Committee.
“A warrant will be issued in few days because everyone of us is frustrated and upset after many times we have sent out letters.
“It seems these contractors are ghosts without address and we went further to do a search from Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) at least to see if we can get their addresses if they are still in this country.
“These are people that were given billions for the contract; are you now telling me that they are ghosts that they cannot appear before this House.
“Some of them don’t even live in that address, some don’t have address in Nigeria and they were given contracts worth billions.
“We have the NRC who awarded the contract and we will issue the Head of Affairs of the NRC a warrant to bring all the contractors that refused to show up. Whether NRC likes it or not, they must produce the contractors,’’ Agbonayinma added.
