The Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo, has been accused of attempting to hijack the award of a lucrative maritime contract.
The accusation is coming just two weeks before the minister leaves office with President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration ending on May 29th.
The details of a document obtained by TheCable showed how Sambo allegedly pressured relevant government institutions to terminate a procurement process and give the contract out to July Seventh Ventures Limited, a company linked to a former governor of Ogun State.
It was reported that the job in contention is the channel dredging contract by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
It was gathered that following the expiration of the previous Bonny Port dredging contract, the NPA management initiated a process to contract the task to qualified companies through an international competitive bidding process.
Meanwhile, apart from the documented communication, Sambo allegedly told persons involved privately that his attempt to seal the deal was at the behest of President Buhari, who he allegedly claimed had directed him to give one of the channels to his long-term associate and former governor.
A search at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) showed that two directors of July Seventh Ventures Limited, who served under the former governor, were appointed into the position around the time Sambo began pushing for the company to take over Bonny Port dredging through the now controversial process.
Insiders reportedly said that the minister, in his bid to hasten the process and push for the contract, is said to be working round the clock to pull the strings and ensure the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) is pressured into giving its approval on the deal.
Sambo also reportedly held a weekend meeting with the Director-General of BPP, Mamman Amadu and the leadership of the NPA on May 6.
It was also alleged that he also took the BPP DG to see a top presidential aide at home to have the process fast-tracked, but Mamman was said to have pointed out the implications to both the minister and the presidential aide and pleaded with them to allow the NPA management conclude the process already in the pipeline.
It was gathered that the process for engaging new dredging companies for the three politage districts covered by the NPA was halted following refusal by its management to issue award letters to the pre-qualified companies, despite the certificate of no-objection issued by the BPP.
TheCable further reports that the NPA management in a letter dated November 23, 2022, employed some technicalities along the initial procurement process to justify its request for cancellation of the almost concluded process and restarting it.
But two of the pre-qualified companies in the botched procurement process, Messrs Dredging and Reclamation Jan De Nul Limited and Red Star Global Construction Limited who were disturbed by the suspicious moves approached the Federal High Courts sitting in Lagos and Abuja separately, challenging the attempt to cancel the procurement process.
It was therefore gathered that following the new legal challenge, both the BPP and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Abubakar Malami, advised against the termination of the process pending the determination of the matter in court.
In a letter dated February 22, 2023, to one of the plaintiffs signed by the Director Solicitors of the ministry, it was indicated that Malami was unable to intervene on the matter in view of its pendency in court.
However, insiders reportedly said that Sambo has refused to yield any ground.
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