The Federal Court Abuja has picked December 14 2020 for the beginning of the hearing of a suit filed against the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Ameachi and the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Mamman Ahmadu.
A court document made available to newsmen showed that the case has been assigned to Justice Inyang Ekwo.
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The plaintiff, Musa Ibrahim Kuchi had approached the court to challenge the minister over an alleged Public Procurement Act violation in the approval of the $3.1b contract for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri eastern narrow gauge railway.
Kuchi said “for the size of this and the pace of their proceedings, it is difficult to imagine that this contract award met the criteria.
According to him, “it is trite that a presidential approval cannot override the provision of law except there is a national crisis and the NASS would have to give him the power first.
According to the plaintiff, through his lead counsel, K.T. Turaki, SAN, Amaechi and Ahmadu’s action contravened “the provisions of the public procurement Act as stipulated by the provision of Section 58 (5) (a) of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.”
The plaintiff also prayed the court to set aside the contractual agreement between the federal government and the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) for the rail project.
The firm also wants the court to determine whether Amaechi, through the BPP’s chief had the right to issue LETTER OF NO OBJECTION in favour of CCECC NIGERIA LIMITED for the said contract.
The plaintiff claimed that the purported action by the minister denied his partners, AECOM “who are being backed by US Eximbank and other interested and capable companies the fairground to compete for the said contract due to Minister notorious stance against transparency.
“US Eximbank offered less than 2percent interest rate but it was ignored because they wanted government to government bilateral agreement
He added that the minister’s action contravened the spirit and provision of Section 16 and 40 of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.
”The request for no objection claims that the loans presumably to be taken by CCECC which will be guaranteed by the FG will be repaid from railway revenues.
”There is however no evidence nor a track record of the NRC/FMT or of CCECC as a railway and/or port operator presented to show how the revenue streams to repay any/loans are likely to materialise nor the quantum of the subsidy required to service the debt would be available. How do we know that we can afford to pay subsidies and from what source?”, the plaintiff said
