The House of Representatives Committee on Public Assets has said that most of the lease and concession agreements of many MDAs have expired and need renewal.
The committee however summoned the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Abubakar Dantsoho over alleged defective Public Private Partnership (PPP), concessions, and lease agreements.
The Chairman of the Committee, Ademorin Kuye (APC) said the arrangements of most of the lease agreements, concessions, and PPP arrangements by the NPA have either expired, operating without validity or the agreements are due for review sometime this year.
He recalled that the House of Representatives in February 2024 resolved that the House Committee on Public Assets should review all Concession, lease, PPP, and Joint Venture agreements that various MDAs have entered into on behalf of the federation and determine the profitability and continual usefulness to the country.
He said the committee wrote to all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of the Federal Government especially those with land, buildings, and major facilities under one of these arrangements with private entities in one form or the other.
Kuye said while the investigation is ongoing, there are discoveries that some of the concessions, leases and PPP arrangements are defective and were undertaken without due process.
“To further complicate the matters, some of the MDAs do not have records of arrangements to present. One of such case is the Nigerian Ports Authority claimed that all their leases & concession agreements, and details of their PPPs were lost during the #EndSars conflagration that took place in 2020.
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“Coincidentally, most of the lessees, concessionaires and PPP partners of NPA have their arrangements either expired and are operating without valid or the agreements are up for review sometime this year – a situation that is making these partners/lessees/concessionaires dodge the committee and avoid implicating NPA,” he said
He said this action which is not peculiar only to NPA and its tenants/partners but has been noticed in some of other government institutions, is an attempt to impede the National Assembly’s constitutional mandate to summon and investigate breaches in dealings with the Federal Government.
He said: “The House is ready to bring the full weight of the National Assembly to bear in punishing this blatant and criminal disregard to its summons and the constitutional breaches of these MDAs as well as recommend any public officer for prosecution during these investigations.”