Tony Akowe, Abuja
The House of Representatives has commenced investigation into circumstances leading to the alleged use of excessive force and abuse of due process by the Nigerian Air Force against Blue Boulevard, a company handling the mammy market project at the Air Force base in Port Harcourt.
The organisation, which was contracted to build an ultra modern market inside the base at the cost of N10 billion, had allegedly invested about N3.6 billion in the project before the Air Force authority began to use excessive force to get them out of the project.
The House, at its sitting mandated its joint Committee on Air Force and Justice to investigate the matter and ensure that justice is done following a petition to the House by the Company.
However, at the sitting of the joint committee, Group Managing Director of NAF Holding Company, Air Vice Marshal AB Bagari told the committee that they were not aware of any petition sent to the House on the issue and therefore could not make any response.
While acknowledging receipt of the letters from the committee, he said they instructed their lawyer to write to the committee demanding copies of the petition written against them and has not received any response.
He also said the letter inviting them to the public hearing has not been received formally as it was sent to them through WhatsApp, adding that they decided to appear before the committee because of the respect they have for the National Assembly.
He said: “We received a letter dated 2nd January 2020 requesting for documents involving NAF properties and Blue Boulevard Limited . In response to that letter, we wrote a letter dated 27th January addressed to the House Committee on Airforce requesting for copy of the petition sent to the National Assembly so that we can respond appropriately.
“Our legal counsel was the one who forwarded the letter to the Committee. Yesterday (Wednesday) we also received another letter requesting us to make an appearance here. We have not received that letter formally, but was sent to us on WhatsApp.
“But because of the respect we have for the National Assembly, we decided to make an appearance here. In the opening remarks of the Chairman, you made it clear that you want to fair in resolving this issue.
“But as far as the company is concerned, we have not received a copy of this petition, we don’t know what the claims are so that we can make appropriate response. If we have a copy of the petition, we can now write our own submission so that you can read it and ask for any clarification.”
Chairman of the House Committee on Air Force, Rep Shehu Koko told the team that they had no right to ask their lawyer to write to the National Assembly, pointing out that by the operations of the parliament, they deal directly with Chief Executives of agencies they oversight.
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He said: “I signed a letter to you and there was no response, but you have said you sent a letter to the committee from your lawyers. We received that letter and we were waiting for this day to come. The petition we received was copied to the Chief of Air Staff. As Committee, we have ruled guiding our procedures
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“We oversee the Airforce and so, we communicate directly to the Chief Executive of the Airforce and NAF Holdings is a unit of the Airforcce. So, I believe that you should not have asked a lawyer to write to us. The Chief of Air Staff or your self should have written the letter. It is the practice of parliament to communicate directly to the CEO who should reply us.”
Chairman House Committee on Justice, Rep. Ozurigbo Ugonna said the panel was an investigative panel, adding that “what we are here to do is to ensure that we do a little bit of justice that we can do to all the parties.
“We understand the need for this institution to protect their investment and investors in he country because if we dont protect investors, others will be discouraged and they wont want to do any business with the government.
“We also recognise the need for us to protect government institutions and assets. What we want is for all parties to be transparent and be sincere as much as possible so that we are able to arrive at a mutual position that will help all the parties involve.”
The joint committee however asked the management of Blue Boulevard Limited to once serve NAF Holdings and other agencies of the force concerned within 7 days, saying failure to do that would mean that they were not serious with their petition.
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