PDP BoT Chair Denies Involvement In N1trn Railway Contract Scam

The acting chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Board chairman of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Mohammed Halliru Bello, has denied any involvement in the award of railway contracts, saying that it was the Federal Executive Council (FEC) who awarded the contracts and not the NRC Board.

Mohammed Halliru Bello

Bello spoke on Tuesday at an investigative hearing organised by the House of Representatives Adhoc Committee on failed Railway Contracts from 2010 to 2015, where he cited Section 22 of the Public Procurement Act which exclude the Board from award of contracts.
He informed the committee that the NRC Board under him only carried out oversight functions by supervising the projects approved by FEC, adding that he only signed agreements and not the contracts.
“That would have been against the law. I signed agreements not contracts, I cannot recall all the contracts I signed, I am 70 years old. The decision-making was in the hand of the Tenders Board,” Bello said.
He further explained that the NRC had various sub-committees, who receive reports from the site engineers and in return give feedbacks to the Board.
Bello, who is also a former acting national chairman of the PDP, recalled how he gave a directive for the sale of scraps in the NRC yards when he was in charge between 2009 and 2011 but said he did not know if his directive was carried out or not.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has said that plans were underway to begin movement of petroleum products from the southern part of the country to the North by rail lines before the end of first quarter of 2016.
Amaechi disclosed this yesterday while making submissions at the investigative public hearing of the ad hoc committee.
The minister said that the development would decongest the number of heavy trucks and trailers that convey the products.
“As from this first quarter we should be able to begin to move petroleum products from Lagos by rail up to the north so that we reduce the impact of trailers and tankers on our roads,’’ Amaechi said.
He said that the ministry would focus on completing the construction of Lagos to Kano and Lagos to Calabar railway lines with a view to developing faster railway system in the country.
The minister however assured that if the Ministry gets the loan to finance the project from China Exim Bank, it would facilitate the completion of a standard gauge railway track.
He added that before the end of 2016, trains will start running on the Kaduna-Abuja standard gauge which is currently near completion.
Amaechi also said that the ministry would harness the potentials in the railway sector to create employment and ensure easy movement of goods across the country.


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