MEMBERS of the House of Representatives adhoc Committee on the Railway Contract Scam Probe have invited the former Minister of Transport, Isa Bio Ibrahim; Department of State Service, DSS; Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation; the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and 27 contractors allegedly involved in the misappropriation of N1trillion railway contracts.
This came as the Senate revealed that the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, were wrongly allocated N19 billion by the Budget Office in 2016 budget. This is as Chairman of the Reps adhoc committee, Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma, PDP, Egor/Ikpoba Oha Federal Constituency, denied a report that his committee had submitted its interim report.
Those invited are expected to appear before the committee on Thursday to explain their roles in the management of monies made available by the Federal Government to revamp the railway sector. According to a source close to the committee, the DSS was invited to give a vivid account of the recommendations it made to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation concerning how the rail contracts were poorly managed between 2010 and 2014. On the other hand, the SGF would explain to the committee what happened to the investigative report submitted to it by the DSS.
As for the former minister, Mr Ibrahim, who took over from Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke in 2009, he is expected to explain with valid documents as he allegedly signed the contract for the procurement of locomotives General Electric(GE) valued at about N12.5 billion. The source further explained that it was during the reign of Ibrahim that the recently sacked MD of NRC, Mr Seyi Sijuwade, was employed by the Presidency. “So, as you can see, the man has a lot to tell the committee because he kick-started the whole process in the first place,” he said. VANGUARD
