Even though it has yet to take off, the Nigerian Maritime University (NMU) in Kurutie, Delta State, has cost a fortune.
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the university’s promoter, may have spent N17 billion on acquiring the land for its temporary site, a probe panel has learnt.
The panel was constituted by the Federal Ministry of Transport (FMoT) to ascertain the desirability or otherwise of the university, which was inaugurated with fanfare by former President Goodluck Jonathan 19 days before he left office.
The panel is wondering how NIMASA spent N17 billion to get two hectares of land in Kurutie, which lacks basic facilities, such as power, water, road, school and health centre.
Its members, it was gathered, were not happy with what they saw when they visited the site, last week.
Sources said there was nothing to justify the huge amount spent on the Kurutie land.
A source said: “The promoters of the university had bad motive before going there to buy land. Are they telling us that it is more expensive to buy land in the creeks than Abuja and Eko Atlantic City?
“They left the capital city of Asaba, Warri, Agbor and other developed towns to purchase the land in the mind-boggling creek village because they wanted to build a university? Is that the first community to host a university?
“How much is a plot of land in Asaba and other developed towns in Delta State for anybody to claim that they purchased a plot of land in the creek for over a billion naira? What was the attraction?
“Even in the big commercial city of Lagos, Ibadan and Port Harcourt, how much is a plot of land in the creeks not to talk of the remote village of Kurutie?
“How many millionaires not to talk of billionaires are living in that community and its environs? What is the major occupation of the people living in that area apart from fishing?
“Apart from the land and the structures on the temporary site, even if the university is the owner of over 50 new buildings and the land they occupy, it would still not justify the N17 billion spent on the land by NIMASA,” he said.
The panel has reportedly queried the amount paid for the buildings on the land before its acquisition.
A senior NIMASA official claimed that when the agency proposed to establish the university in Kurutie, the community agreed to provide the land. But the promoters, he alleged, returned, few months later to say that the land was bought for N17 billion.
“Leaders of that community and the promoters of the university must be invited by the committee and the Federal Government to tell Nigerians if the land was sold to NIMASA or not. The amount that was paid by NIMASA and the actual amount it cost to get a plot of land in that area.
“The N17 billion is public money. The past and present leadership of the agency must be made to tell Nigerians the truth about the money. Why the management of the agency should abandon its core responsibility of safety at sea to build university in order to siphon public fund and think that they can go away with it because they have the ears of the last administration?
“Well, time changes with man. Therefore, we are happy that there is a change in the government and we hope President Muhammadu Buhari will help us retrieve the money,” the official said.
The official also alleged that the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) was not well managed by NIMASA, urging the committee to investigate how much was withdrawn from the fund and what it was used for.
The CVFF, he said, has grown to billions of dollars without any indigenous ship owners benefiting from it.
Contributors, he said, do not know the amount in NIMASA’s care, adding that it was time its Acting Director-General, Pastor Haruna Jauro, made the amount public.
NIMASA Deputy Director, Public Relations (DDPR) Hajia Lami Tumaka, said the panel’s report would be sent to the government when it is ready.
The committee, according to her, is expected to evaluate all the projects being executed by NIMASA to ascertain their level of completion vis-à-vis the funds released for them.
