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Tag: contract

  • Senate orders CBN to terminate TSA contract

    Senate orders CBN to terminate TSA contract

    • SystemSpecs: we ‘re committed to resolving commercial issue

    The Senate yesterday ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to terminate the 2013 e-payment contract renewal with SystemSpecs.

    The upper chamber also ordered the CBN to disregard the one per cent charge provided in the contract agreement with the leading indigenous software giant.

    As part of its contract with SystemSpecs, the CBN  agreed to the deduction of one per cent charge of all e-collections by SystemSpecs, operator of REMITA platform driving the Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) initiative.

    This is part of an 11-point recommendations by the Senate Joint Committee on Finance, Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions and Public Accounts.

    The Senate in plenary adopted the recommendations as presented by Chairman of the Joint Committee, Senator John Owan Enoh.

    The submission of the Joint Committee was however not debated as Senate President,  Bukola Saraki, ruled that only the recommendations of the committee would be considered.

    The Senate had, at its sitting on November 11 last year debated a motion on alleged “Abuse and Mismanagement of the TSA.”

    But SystemSpecs said it is irrevocably committed to indigenous technology aapplication for national transformation

    In a statement, the firm saidthe subsisting one per cent charge eventually agreed by the CBN, banks and it at the commencement of the project was considered a good starting point which could be reviewed based on emerging realities. This much is a clear and integral part of our contracts with the CBN, it said.

    The statement reads in part: “The resounding success of the TSA project has obviously attracted attention from different quarters which may include those benefitting from the old pre-TSA order, competitors who lost out in the selection process, un-informed or under-informed commentators, and others. In it all, we have always been and will remain fully committed to the full resolution of any issue surrounding the commercial component of our contract in the overall larger national interest.

    “On a last note, we thank the Senate for its avowed commitment to preserving the national interest, the government for entrusting such a significant national IT project to an indigenous firm, and numerous Nigerians who continue to objectively analyse issues and encourage us particularly during these times.”

    The upper chamber resolved to, among others, mandate its Joint Committee on Finance, Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions and Public Accounts to conduct holistic investigation on the matter.

    It specifically mandated the Joint Committee to investigate the alleged abuse of the TSA and deduction of N25 billion from accounts of Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) under the e-payment.

    Other recommendations also adopted by the lawmakers include: that the CBN should show evidences of all refunds made by SystemSpecs as well as identify and recommend for prosecution, all the persons involved in approving the controversial TSA contract.

    It mandated the CBN to carry out in-house enquiry to sanitise its system of contract awards to avoid future discrepancies.

    The committee said SystemSpecs deducted only N7.6 billion from its collections.

    The Senate agreed with the Joint Committee that the CBN should pay N656,504,100 only to SystemSpecs as transaction cost for funds transfer collection for the period ended Nov. 30 last year.

    It said the approval of N656 million payment was based on CBN wage band of N700 per transaction for electronic transfer payment which was adopted by the Senate.

    The upper chamber asked the CBN to ban deductions from MDAs, but should be paid from a central pool.

    The Senate said all monies realised from TSA operations should be provided to be appropriated in 2016.

  • Police raid P-Square’s Lagos residence over N8m breach of contract

    Police raid P-Square’s Lagos residence over N8m breach of contract

    hardly had the dust over the rift between Peter of Psquare and his brothers; Paul and Jude settled when the iconic music family is faced with another messy , bothering on alleged breach of contract.

    Residents of Omole Estate woke up Friday morning to the invasion of the Square Villa, home of Psquare, by policemen, purportedly carrying out a court order to reclaim about N8million said to have been paid to Psquare for a show they eventually turned down.

    A leader of the delegation who spoke exclusively to NET said they were carrying out an order passed by the Ikeja High Court, Lagos. “Psquare were paid over 8million Naira for a show and they didn’t show up for the show. Our job here is to enforce the court injunction and retrieve the cash. Right now they say they are trying to transfer the money and that’s why we are waiting.”

    Although the group neither showed the court injunction to the NET correspondent nor revealed the name of the client, an eye witness said the singers appeared beaten by the situation which attracted a mammoth to their residence.

    Paul was seen driving out of the Sqaure Ville in a tinted BMW, refusing to speak to anyone. There were indications the singer was going to sort out the refund rather than allow further molestation.

    Recall that few days ago, Peter started a Twitter rant, calling it quits with their elder brother and manager, Jude. The matter appeared to subside after Paul took sides with Jude.

    Peter had gone ahead to reveal more bitter secrets, including how Jude hijacked reggae star, Cynthia Morgan from him.

  • We got N905.8m from NIMASA without bidding for contract- Witness

    We got N905.8m from NIMASA without bidding for contract- Witness

    A lawyer and businessman, Uche Obilor, Tuesday told the Federal High Court in Lagos that three of his companies received N905,800 million from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) without bidding for any contract.

    He said the firms – Seabulk Offshore Limited, Southern Offshore Limited and Ace Prothesis Limited – were paid for a contract they never executed.

    He was testifying in the trial of a former NIMASA Director-General Patrick Akpobolokemi, who was accused by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) converting N2.6billion.

    He was also accused of defrauding the Federal Government to the tune of N795.2million.

    Akpobolokemi was arraigned before Justice Ibrahim Buba along with three others – Captain Ezekiel Agaba, Ekene Nwakuche, Governor Juan – and three companies, namely Blockz and Stonz Limited, Kenzo Logistics Limited and Al-Kenzo Logistic Limited.

    Led in evidence by EFCC prosecutor, the youthful Rotimi Oyedepo, Obilor said he was approached by NIMASA to provide vessels for the implementation of an ISPS Code project.

    Oyedepo asked: “Did you bid for the contract?” The witness said: “We did not officially bid for the contract.”

    The EFCC lawyer asked: “Did you execute the unofficial contract?” Obilor responded: “The contract was not executed.”

    According to the witness, the companies received letters of award of contracts although they did not submit any bids.

    He said the monies were paid before they got confirmation that they had been awarded the contract.

    “When we had the letter of award, by then the monies had been paid upfront.

    “We were later approached that we should stay action, and that we should remit the money to certain companies and individuals,” he said.

    He said his companies got the following sums: Seabulk Offshore, N437million; Southern Offshore, N402million; and Ace Prothesis, N66.8million.

    Obilor said they neither issued requests for payment, nor did they submit any invoices.

    When he was showed a request document for the payment of a particular sum, he said: “We did not issue this document.”

    The witness said he received instructions from Captain Agaba, and that they discussed verbally.

    Under cross examination by Akpobolokemi’s lawyer Dr Joseph Nwobike (SAN), Obilor said he never dealt with or met the former NIMASA boss.

    “I did not meet the first defendant,” he said.

    When Agaba’s lawyer, Edoka Onyeke, confronted the witness with a document signed by his executive directors, Obilor denied that any of his staff signed any papers bidding for the contract or demanding payment.

    “I am very much aware of what happens in my companies. If the documents had emanated from the companies I would have known. I am unaware that my directors signed the documents,” he said.

    Obilor said he took steps to confirm if indeed his workers signed the documents, but admitted there was no documentary evidence showing their denial.

    “I am not aware of any statements from them denying the documents. I didn’t take them along to the EFCC to deny those documents,” he said.

    Adjourning, Justice Buba joked that he had to force himself to sit for the trial even though he was treating malaria.

    “My temperature was very high Monday, but I forced myself to be here so that the press will not write a bold headline that ‘judge’s absence stalled trial,’” he said.

    Trial continues on Friday.

  • CCTV contract: Reps summon Ambode, Monguno, Adeosun, others

    CCTV contract: Reps summon Ambode, Monguno, Adeosun, others

    The National Security Adviser (NSA) Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd), Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, the Governor of Lagos State, Akinwumi Ambode, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mohammed Musa Bello as well as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele are to appear before a House of Representatives panel over a contract for the provision of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) in Abuja and Lagos.
    The $470m CCTV contract was awarded to ZTE Corporation, a Chinese company, by the immediate past government of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    The contract that could not be executed was for the purpose of security in Abuja and Lagos.

    According to the Chairman of  the committee, Ahmed Yarima (APC, Bauchi), others expected to shed light on their roles in the contract include the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, Minister of Interior Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd), Minister of Communications Adebayo Shittu and Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Garba Dambatta.

    Others are ZTE Corporation of China and its MD in Nigeria; Nigeria Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT); BC-TEC Engineering; NETLINK Broadband Networks Limited; OPEN SKYS Services Limited; LTS Security and Communication Limited; DG Debt Management Office (DMO); FIRS chairman; Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the DG Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP).

  • TSA: CBN admits contract with Remita

    TSA: CBN admits contract with Remita

    •N2tr collected from MDAs, says Emefiele

    Bureaucracy and professionalism clashed yesterday in Abuja.

    Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele and Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) Ahmed Idris were locked in arguements over the controversial Treasury Single Account (TSA) with SystemSpecs Limited, owner of Remita, an electronic payment solution.

    But SystemSpecs Chief Executive Officer (CEO) John Obaro insisted that his platform had a valid contract with the CBN and deserved to earn its charge as contained in the contract.

    Emefiele, Idris and Obaro spoke at a public hearing on alleged abuse and mismanagement of the TSA regime.

    The Senate instituted the public hearing following claims that the one per cent service charge being paid to Remita under the TSA was a rip-off.

    Emefiele explained the spirit behind the TSA which process he said began in 2010.

    Idris gave the amount collected under the TSA as N1.8 trillion but

    The CBN Governor gave N2.038 trillion as the amount collected from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as at December 8. But The AGF gave a figure of N1.8 trillion.

    Emefiele said because of the large volume of fund collection under TSA, the payment of one per cent service charge to the service provider, Remita was considered to be too high and exorbitant.

    Emefiele added that the TSA scheme is laudable adding that the Federal Government should be commended for ensuring its full implementation.

    He noted that already the CBN has over N2 trillion, money that should have been lying idle in banks.

    He said that there was no abuse of the TSA as being claimed in some quarters.

    Chairman of the joint committee promptly reminded him that the TSA is not on trial especially when the Senate had commended President Muhammadu Buhari for its implementation.

    On who approved the payment of one per cent service charge to Remita, the CBN governor said he needed to cross check but admitted that that there was an agreement between CBN and Remita.

    He said he was told that Inter-Departmental Committee of the apex bank approved the payment.

    He also told the committee that the Remita platform was designed to handle retail payment.

    Emefiele said that when Remita was appointed as e- payment Solution platform, Nigeria Inter-Banks Settlement System (NIBSS) owned by the CBN was not quite ready to provide the services.

    The CBN boss said that he is not aware that Remita is hosted outside the country adding that all he knows is that Remita is a Nigerian company and hosted in the country.

    Emefiele reiterated that since 2012 when TSA was introduced over N2 trillion had been collected and the volume of collection would continue to increase.

    He said that the agreement stipulated a sharing formula of CBN 10%, banks 40% and Remita 50% of the one per cent service charge.

    Emefiele told the committee that at the reversal of the agreement Remita was asked to refund the N8 billion it collected.

    The company, he said, promptly complied by refunding what it earned.

    The Senate had claimed that Remita received N25 billion in three months.

    The CBN governor said that he is sure that Remita has also realised that the payment of one per cent service charge on all funds collected is exorbitant.

    On alleged upfront payment of the service charge, the CBN governor said he does not think the deduction was made up front from the collection.

    He said, “Monies have been collected and the agreement says you take one per cent of what had been collected.”

    Asked whether he was aware that one per cent was being taken from the funds collected for the Federal Government, Emefiele said:

    “I did not know that one per cent was being taken on that account until we were summoned to the office of the Senate President and I was surprised to hear it. It was immediately that I swung into act to find out who John Obaro is. I called him immediately to refund the money he collected and to reverse the payment.

    “Initially I did not know who owns Remita and SystemSpecs until my attention was drawn o it in the Senate President’s office. I have to admit that I did not know about the payment until it came up on the floor of the Senate. That was why I quickly called Mr. Obaro and immediately reversed the payment.”

    Chairman of the committee Enoh praised the courage of the CBN boss for admitting that he did not know about the payment.

    Enoh noted that it is solemn for people in office to admit their error.

    The Accounta General told the Committee that the TSA is meant to focus on resources of government and to ensure that the resources are consolidated and viewed through single window.

    He said that it is also meant to block leakages.

    Idris gave the amount collected under the TSA as N1.8 trillion but the CBN Governor gave N2.038 trillion as the amount collected as at December 8, 2015.

    Idris said that 47 MDAs had enrolled in the TSA scheme adding that it does not mean that that MDAs do not want to enroll.

    He said that the appointment of Remita as e-payment solution platform was a stop-gap because the CBN lacked the capacity to do it when Remita was selected.

    He said that they have been meeting on the way forward until the matter came up in the Senate.

    On charges paid to Remita Idris said: “Whatever charges made by Remita which is about N8 billion, we wish that the matter should be resolved. Now Remita is operating without charge. The matter should be resolved. Remita cannot be operating without charge.

    He told the committee that there was no MoU between the Office of the Accountant General and Remita.

    He added: “What I do know is that when I came I was confronted with the agreement for the appointment of Remita and I refused to sign it because I was not part of the agreement.”

    Idris said that he also refused to endorse the appointment because “I was opposed and disagreed with the level of payment and charges awarded to Remita. There was no agreement between the CBN and the AGF duly signed.”

    He continued, “My office has not made any payment on the operation of the TSA. We have not engaged anybody and no payment. My office is not party to any payment.”

    Idris said that the provision of gateway of collection of government funds is the responsibility of the CBN adding that if the CBN had provided that gate way there would not be any need to appoint Remita.

    He agreed that if Remita provided the services it deserved to be paid.

    In his presentation Obaro, said that the use of Remita started in 2012 with 116 Ministries Departments and Agencies.

    He insisted that his company has valid contract agreement with the CBN and it should be honoured.

    He said that the agreement for the fees was reached in 2013 by a committee comprising the CBN, OAGF, the commercial banks and SystemSpecs at a price of 2.5 per cent, which was reduced to one per cent later.

    Obaro said the use of Remita software had increased transparency with provision of online real time account balances of all MDAs.

    He said that even officers who approve payments were documented as well as those to whom such payments were made, insisting that the company had a valid contract with the CBN and the charges were as agreed to.

    He however said that the OAGF in October, 2015, expressed worry at the percentage and he stressed that the company did not have any problem with a percentage renegotiation.

    He expressed displeasure that the rules of a game could be changed in the middle of a game and a contract rescinded without any explanation.

    Obaro also said that when CBN asked that Remita should refund what it received it promptly complied especially because the CBN is also their regulator.

    On September 14, 2015, the OAGF had expressed concern at a project review meeting about the fees considering the enlarged scope of the project. SystemSpecs was not averse to price renegotiation. We wrote to the CBN that we are open to renegotiation and that an all stakeholders meeting be convened.

    “Three weeks later on October 7, we wrote again that an all stakeholders meeting should be convened to review processing fees.

    “Two weeks later on October 27, we were instructed by the CBN to refund all fees that have accrued to us in accordance with the contract. We strategically chose to comply within 24 hours of receipt of their letter as we did not want to allow the issue of fees in the heat of the moment to becloud the work we have done in the delivery of TSA for Nigeria. While refunding our own portion of the fees as demanded by the CBN however, we accompanied the refund with a fairly worded letter stating why the fees legitimately earned in line with our contract should be refunded to us. How much more could we have demonstrated good faith?

    “On November 11, two weeks after refunding all fees and operating zero fees at the risk of a legal battle with other stakeholders, without hearing our own side of the story, we were erroneously accused of fraud, abuse and mismanagement of the TSA on the hallowed chambers of this highly respected Senate.

    “To say the least sir, we feel used, abused, unappreciated and abandoned by the country for which we stuck out our necks and faith to deliver the platform that made the TSA possible, which in other climes, all citizens would be proud of, acclaimed, encouraged and motivated to further the frontiers of greater technological breakthroughs and innovation.

    “In any case, pray, how could enforcing the terms of a validly signed and subsisting contract amount to fraud while discussions were already ongoing on whether the terms of the valid contract may need to be reviewed to recognize emerging realities? How can discussions on the need to re-negotiate contractual terms due to increased volumes form the basis to seek to throw the baby away with the bath water?”

    The Chairman of the joint committee stressed that no matter how much money was involved, one per cent charge was too exorbitant for the job.

    He commended all parties who made presentation for opening up and directed that all commercial banks not represented must be present at the next hearing of the committee on the matter.

     

  • Lawmaker seeks road contract probe

    Lawmaker seeks road contract probe

    A member of the House of Representatives Hon Uko Nkole (Arochukwu/Ohafia constituency) has called for a comprehensive probe of all contracts awarded for the Arochukwu/Ohafia Road.

    •Hon Uko
    •Hon Uko

    Nkole proposed that the probe should stretch as far back as the era of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF).

    He described the road as a disaster and death trap requiring immediate intervention in order to stop the daily accidents which occur on it.

    Gully erosion has further damaged the road, several parts of which have failed, making travel a herculean and hazardous exercise.

    Speaking with reporters in Arochukwu, Nkole said that there is need for the federal government to extend the corruption fight to the contracts awarded for the construction of Arochukwu/Ohafia federal road.

    Nkole said that the contract for the construction of the road has been awarded several times by successive governments with no visible result.

    He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to order for probe on all the contracts awarded for the construction of the road from the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) till date and that any of the contractors found culpable should be made to refund the money and also face the law to serve as a deterrent to others who may want to go their way.

    The federal lawmaker said that the road has suffered neglect since the end of the civil war 41 years ago and is getting worse day by day while causing untold hardship to commuters and the people of Ohafia and Arochukwu and other adjoining communities.

    DSC_1226He explained that the people from the area are mainly agrarian people and traders but have no good roads to transport their goods to and from the area thereby affecting the socio-economic development and denying them the necessary infrastructure that could have come their way.

    A community leader, Mazi Jideofor Kanu who spoke on behalf of Akanu/Ania village said the that transportation of farm produce in commercial quantity from Ohafia, Arochukwu, Ihechiowa, Ututu to other neighboring communities in Akwa Ibom and Cross River states is truncated and wondered when the traumatic experiences encountered on the road would end.

    The President General Nzuko Arochukwu, Mazi Nnamdi Udoh said there is no time left to be apportioning blame on what has delayed the rehabilitation of the Arochukwu/Ohafia Roads because it will not help the local people.

    Udoh said that the local people are the ones who bear the brunt daily and called on the Federal Government as a matter of urgency to deploy a competent construction firm to take over the project and complete it in record time in order to redeem the people of the area from the

    unfortunate bondage.

    One of the motorists Kanu Monday said that the road needs a Save our Soul [SOS] intervention and appealed to the federal government to come to their aid because they are being cut off from other communities and wonder if they are part of this country called Nigeria.

    Kanu said that it is shame that 41 years after the end of the civil with the saying no victor no vanquished, “We are still being treated as the vanquished people of the war, we need to be told our proper place in this country, except we are no longer from this country”.

    Another motorist Okezie Ibom said that there is need for the federal government to come to the aid of the people from that part of the country, stressing that many people have lost their lives on the road because of the dilapidated nature of the road.

    Ibom said that the situation of the road has gone a long way to prove the saying by Igbo people that there is no easy road to get to Arochukwu and wondered when the saying will be proved wrong by subsequent administrations.

  • Contract sleaze

    Contract sleaze

    The Buhari government must change the 60 percent failure rate

    The menace of project failure has become ingrained in our national psyche to the detriment of her wellbeing. This challenge seems to be evading the desired attention. The damning report obtained from the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation’s (UNIDO) recent workshop in Kaduna State reveals projects’ success across the country in the last 20 years to be within 38 – 39 percent, with failure put at 60 percent. Once again, it pushed this problem to the fore. We ask: How can 60 per cent of projects in the nation end up in failure and nothing significant is being done to address the situation?

    It is interesting that project management experts, including Mithat Kulur, Project Lead Advisor of UNIDO and Mark Engelhardt, Consultant and Trainer for UNIDO, among others, attended the workshop convoked in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) to discuss issues on Project Management and Team Building. It is encouraging that the workshop was attended by project managers in public institutions including the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), amongst others, across the country.

    Kulur reportedly disclosed at the workshop that Nigeria invests ‘millions of dollars on projects, brings on board the services of international expatriates using local resources to meet the compelling demands of those projects, yet experienced over 60 percent project failure within the framework of governmental systems.’ This is quite frightening even when we consider the percentage as conservative, given the nation’s proclivity  for projects’ failures and abandonment.

    This deleterious trend portends a bad omen in a nation that has been struggling to develop her infrastructural base for decades, to no avail. The talk-shop is just a reminder of an endemic problem of project management that is begging to be officially addressed. Despite the fact that project management challenges is a universal issue, the large-scale and trend at which projects fail in this country demand urgent and serious attention.  Working within budget limits through optimum utilisation of resources has been an avoidable bane in the public affairs of the nation.

    We discovered that even before the UNIDO workshop exposition, the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in a recent programme beamed on national network a special report on abandoned projects in the country. It showed that 11,800 abandoned Federal Government projects, including not less than 130 power projects running into trillions of naira, were awaiting government attention. Apart from the trillions wasted, it also underscores the degeneration of values in service delivery in the nation’s public service.

    ‘We hope to see a drastic and holistic change of official attitude to projects management in the country for the good of the nation. The government can do this by eliminating the retrogressive syndrome of political patronage that has promoted nepotism/tribalism and corruption above national interest and wellbeing’

    We say this because most of these projects failed due to avoidable seamy factors as contract variations, corruption, defective planning/management, tribalism/nepotism in choice of contract awards to deficient companies and lack of political will not only to enforce compliance of standards by successive administrations but also to mete out sanctions on erring companies and their promoters.

    We expect things to change with the assumption of a new government under President Muhammadu Buhari. He has promised a new berth from the corrupt past. We hope to see a drastic and holistic change of official attitude to projects management in the country for the good of the nation. The government can do this by eliminating the retrogressive syndrome of political patronage that has promoted nepotism/tribalism and corruption above national interest and wellbeing. The incidence of abandoned/failed projects has done more harm to the nation than good and the time to move forward is now.

     

  • Youths threaten to shut down NDDC over N1.05bn contract

    Youths threaten to shut down NDDC over N1.05bn contract

    Hundreds of aggrieved youths from coastal communities in the nine states of the Niger Delta region, yesterday, threatened to shut down the Port Harcourt headquarters of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in Rivers State.

    The angry youths said they would shut down the office to protest the refusal of the NDDC to release the balance payment of a N1.05billion contract for clearing of water hyacinth along the creeks and waterways of the region.

    The youths said they completed the job of clearing hyacinth along the coastline and creeks, but wondered why NDDC officials continued to withhold their payment.

    Some of the youths from the Peremabiri and Koluama communities of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, explained that the hyacinth clearing project was awarded by the last administration to over 700 youths from the region.

    They said the contract was part of measures adopted by the last administration to empower youths from the region, and gave the NDDC a14-day ultimatum to release the project fund or risk shutdown of its activities.

    “All the affected youths and representatives of their communities will invade the NDDC office and will not vacate the place until the money is released,” they said.

    But an ex-militant leader and President of the Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiatives (LPDCI), ‘General’ Pastor Reuben Wilson, sued for calm, and advised the NDDC to listen to the youths and release the money.

  • Tompolo’s contract

    • Another good riddance to bad rubbish!

    Expectedly, the Federal Government has terminated the $103m (about N21billion) maritime security contract awarded by the Goodluck Jonathan administration to Global West Vessel Specialists Nigeria Limited (GWVSNL) believed to be owned by former Niger Delta militant, Government Ekpomupolo a.k.a. Tompolo. The Presidency, according to report, had ordered the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to discontinue payment for the provision of platforms for security of the nation’s waterways and this had stopped since last month. The contract was awarded by NIMASA in 2011.

    This is the second such unconscionable contract awarded by the Jonathan administration to be terminated by the Muhammadu Buhari government. The first was the pipeline protection contracts awarded to the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) and Niger Delta militia group which was also stopped last month, with the Federal Government giving a marching order to the Nigerian Army and Navy to take over protection of the pipeline.

    Nigerians had always opposed the outsourcing of the security of these vital national assets to the militants and ethnic militias. Unfortunately, for reasons best known to it, the Jonathan administration which seemed bent on professionalising militancy, insisted on going ahead with the contracts.

    Thus, as those given the contracts were smiling to the banks, the security agencies that have the constitutional mandate to secure these assets were starved of funds. This was evident in the several setbacks the military suffered in the fight against Boko Haram fighters, as the country had to look for help from outside to fight the insurgents.

    Although the former president did not hide his proclivity for pandering to parochial interests in his actions and utterances, not a few persons wondered how this could be taken to such ridiculous lows, whereby the president would surrender the security of the country’s maritime domain to his kinsman when there are government security agencies that have the constitutional role to perform such functions? If it was a public-private partnership (PPP) as the Jonathan government called it, it must have been a warped one at that.

    Apart from being a serious indictment of our security agencies, the contract awards were also a national disgrace; they exposed the nation to ridicule because there is no such paradigm anywhere in the civilised world. To worsen matters, the country did not get value for the money it paid to secure the national assets as over 400,000 barrels of crude oil were being stolen daily from our shores under President Jonathan. That this persisted for years made many people to suspect that it was the same people who were given the job of maritime security that were colluding with the international shipping companies to steal the country’s oil.

    It is against this background that we commend the Buhari administration for terminating these so-called contracts which represented nothing but “job for the boys” and a veritable avenue to siphon public funds. Any rational Nigerian knew that such contracts could only have been awarded by an administration like Dr Jonathan’s, and that the moment the government was voted out, it was a matter of time for the contract to be terminated.

    However, with the maritime security contract now terminated, the government should channel the money paid to the private firm to strengthen the Navy and marine police whose responsibility it is to secure the nation’s waterways. Where more resources are required for these agencies to perform, the government should not hesitate to provide them. If after getting the necessary requirements the security agencies still cannot perform, then it becomes a matter to be handled administratively. The solution does not lie in funding rag-tag militants and ethnic militias to handle such sensitive duties.

  • Pipeline surveillance contract a jamboree

    Pipeline surveillance contract a jamboree

    What is the strength of the NCNDE-A and what major effort  have you made in the past to sustain peace in that region? 

    The membership of NCNDE-A spreads across the Niger Delta region and I have leadership control over them. Numerically, we are more than 5000 ex-militants in the group and are all card carrying members of the APC. I was that man who in a joint effort with the Federal Government through the late National Security Adviser, NSA, General Owoye Azazi, mopped up small arms from those militants who weren’t willing to surrender their arms after the demise of the late President Umar Yar’Adua. I had informed the late NSA of the dangers of the preponderance of small and medium arms in the region and the unwillingness of a section of the militants to surrender their arms to FG in the amnesty program. He immediately ordered the ýJTF, to reach and work with me. We swung into action as soon as the Commander of the JTF got across to me. I took them to all the camps in the creeks right inside their armouries and recovered large cache of arms and ammunitions. The FG was pleased with my honest efforts at ensuring peace in the region. As a result of this, I became enemy at that time to some categories of militants who saw me as working against their narrow interests but today, they know better.

    What challenges did you face as a champion of the APC and election bid of the president-elect?

    I face countless challenges in the hands of the enemies of true and positive change before, during and after the elections. Prior to the coalition’s declaration for Buhari in the region, a meeting was held at behest of the Governor of Bayelsa state in the Government House, Yenagoa with senior officials of Jonathan administration present including Kingsley Kuku. The purport of the meeting was to tell all ex-militants to return to the creeks preparatory for war should Buhari win the election. I took serious exemption to that order for two reasons. Gen Buhari and APC are my candidate and political party respectively. Secondly, the benefits of the amnesty program were reaped by the ijaw nation alone, making anyone from any other tribe stupid in his support for the ijaw course. I stood in strong objection and I was bullied out of the meeting and not without serious threats.

    After that, NCNDE-A adopted in a rally, Gen Buhari and the APC. Funds were voted and our men were deployed to the villages. At that point I was already in serious danger occasioned by morbid threats from the PDP apologists in the gab of ex-militants peopled only by those of Ijaw extraction who see the Nigerian presidency as their birthright.

    I was on several occasions hounded into detention in Abuja on the ‘order from above’ and physical attacks from the desperados. All they say, is now history. We thank God for being celebrants today or else, I would have being on the run now or killed if Dr Jonathan had been re-elected.

    What’s your take on the pipeline surveillance contract of the Federal Government as it concerns security of oil facilities in the Delta?

    The pipeline surveillance contracts was a jamboree embarked upon by the Jonathan administration to empower militias in the region and beyond for possible anarchy which his plan then should he lose the election. It wasn’t for the good of the nation but self-serving. The new government should cancel those surveillance contracts, re-award them evenly to oil facility bearing communities and not to just one tribe as in the case of the Niger Delta or a common miscreant as in the case of Gani Adams, of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC.