How senator’s N5m coy got N26bn dredging contract

A Company in which the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff, Senator Hope Uzodinma (PDP, Imo) holds shares was a awarded a contract worth over N26 billion even as it’s authorized share capital is N5 million, Daily Trust gathered.

Documents from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) indicated that Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company Limited, which was awarded contract for the dredging of Calabar Channel in 2012 has Uzodinma, Ozu Dinwoke, Leonard Odionyema and Justin Njoku as directors.

Senator Uzodinma contributed N200,000, Dinwoke N100,000, Odionyenma N1.4 million and Njoku N1.450 million. The company was registered on June 21, 2000.

Documents sighted by Daily Trust showed that after an initial payment of $12.5 million to Niger Global Engineering by the NPA in 2014, the company failed to carry out any work on the Calabar channel.

A status document on the contract presented by Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman showed that after failing to dredge the channel, Global Engineering is now seeking payment of about $22 million as balance for the contract. The total contract sum was about N26 billion. 

The federal government had in November 2012 granted approval for NPA to partner with the Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company for the management and maintenance of the Calabar channel.

Following the approval, NPA on July 25, 2013 signed a Joint Venture agreement with Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company. The Joint Venture (JV) between NPA and the company gave rise to Calabar Channel Management (CMC) to carry out the management of the dredging among others.

However, controversy hit the project, when the NPA suspended further payments to Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company after investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) showed that there was no justification for the $12,500,000 million part payment received by the company for the project.