Former chairman of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) Bello Haliru Mohammed has said that he could not remember signing any contract outside the law during his tenure from 2009 to 2011.
Bello told a House of Representatives panel probing the matter yesterday that while he was directed to sign contracts on behalf of the NRC on many occasions, the process and the decision that led to the award of any contract were taken by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
The House had following the adoption of a motion on allegations of the mismanagement of over N1 trillion railway contracts across the county last year constituted an ad-hoc committee led by Ehoizuwa Johnson Agbonayinma (PDP, Edo) to investigate the matter.
The committee had engaged two former chairmen of the NRC board Bamanga Tukur and Abubakar Kawu Baraje last December on the matter, where they denied complicity on the matter.
At resumption of hearing of the matter yesterday, Bello, who was the acting chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees said: “my mandate was to make sure railway start to function after 25 years. The board had therefore had got to start almost from the scratch to get the rail tracks and the signals system back into service and to acquire the necessary rolling stock.”
Managing Director of the NRC Engr Seyi Sjuwade said there were two separate boards with two chairmen within the period and that the process of awarding the contract was established by the Public Procurement Act.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has pledged to complete all ongoing rail projects before the end of this year, minister of transport Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has said.
Amaechi who also appeared before the committee said all that the government was waiting for was the passage of the 2016 budget.
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