Former minister of transport, Isa Bio, has been summoned by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the N1 trillion railway contract over the procurement of locomotives worth N12.5 billion without following due process.
Bio, who took over from Diezani Alison-Madueke in 2009, is expected to provide valid documents allegedly signed for the procurement of the locomotives.
Haliru Bello, former chairman of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), had on February 2, 2016, alleged that the $849 million rail contract was signed by Bio in 2009.
Bello also admitted to have signed the $8.3 billion Lagos-Kano rail contract in 2010, following the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Also invited by the ad hoc committee are top officials of Department of State Security (DSS), Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and 27 contractors allegedly involved in the implementation of the project.
Those invited are expected to appear before the committee on Thursday, March 3, to explain their various roles in the management of money made available by the Federal Government to revamp the railway sector.
According to a source, the DSS official was invited to give a vivid account of the recommendations it made to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation concerning how the rail contracts were poorly managed between 2010 and 2014.
On the other hand, the SGF would explain to the committee what happened to the investigative report submitted to it by the DSS.
“So, as you can see, the man (Bio) has a lot to tell the committee because he kick started the whole process in the first place,” the source said.
The EFCC, according to the source, will give the committee the full details of its findings on the rail contract scam.
“As for the acting managing director of NRC, government is a continuum and he has to give account of what he knows under oath and produce all the contractors.
“The contractors too must tell the committee all they have done with convincing evidence of the state of the contracts they executed,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Johnson Agbonayinma, chairman of the ad hoc committee, had denied a report that his committee had submitted an interim report of the ad hoc committee.
When contacted, Agbonnayinma confirmed that the stakeholders had been invited and they would be properly guided during the investigative hearing on Thursday.
He however denied a report published in one of the national dailies, saying the story was designed to malign his committee and allow those mounting pressure to bury the investigative hearing succeed.
He further explained that the said report was malicious, misleading and was the handwork of fifth columnist.
“It is never done in the legislative parlance to prepare an interim report, as the norm is to submit such a report on the floor of the House for more legislative input,” he said.
On the contractors, the chairman said the need to invite the contractors was important because efforts by the committee to reach them before now proved abortive.
“I will always emphasise the fact that we are not out to witch hunt anybody, provided your hands are not greased with locomotive engine oil laced with fraud.
“But once we unearth any ugly development, no matter how highly placed the individual is we must expose him,” he said.
