The House of Representatives has summoned the Ministers of Blue Economy Gboyega Oyetola and his transportation counterpart, Saidu Alkali over alleged fraudulent concession of some ports infrastructure.
Also invited for questioning are the Managing Director, Nigeria Ports Authority, Mohammed Bello Koko; the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprise, Mamman Ahmadu, as well as the Director-General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, Micheal Ohiani, among others.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, Ibrahim Hamisu (APC, Kaduna) issued the summons at a meeting with the seaport terminal operators in Abuja on Tuesday.
The lawmaker lamented the absence of the top government officials to explain their role in the concession of the seaport terminals.
The committee members expressed their displeasure at the alleged shady manner the concession process was managed which had allowed five companies to be operating for five years without renewal, thereby, leading to huge loss of revenue to the Federal Government.
He said, “They (ministers) must appear before the committee on March 12. We also want to assure that this committee would work very hard to make sure that this issue is over and to do that, you are to furnish the Committee with all the relevant documents through the Secretariat by Friday,” he said
He told the ports stakeholders that they were invited to the meeting to “discuss how best to address this prolonged renewal process because of the need to attract investments into our critical port infrastructure which is one of the major focuses of this administration.
He said, “From the brief we received from affected parties and the Ministries, Departments and Agencies involved in the process. We understand that as of today, what is outstanding in concluding the process that started over five years ago is the execution of the negotiated supplementary agreements for the respective terminals.
“That is why we invited all stakeholders to see how we can work together to quickly address this concern in national interest.”
