Senate Probes Amaechi over $2 billion rail concessions ‎

Senate on Tuesday put a machinery in motion to probe involvement of ‎Minister of Transport,  Rotimi Ameachi  procedure that facilitated concession of Port Harcourt-Maiduguri and Lagos-Kano rail lines to General Electric, GE, a U.S. Conglomerate.

According to reported interview of the Minister in the media, the concession worth $2 billion.

Ameachi had in June announced Nigeria’s engagement with GE regarding the concession of Western and Eastern rail lines – Lagos to Kano and Port Harcourt to Maiduguri respectively – worth around $2 billion.

However, Senate in a motion sponsored‎ by Senator Bassey Akpan accussed the Minister of violating the Public Enterprises (Privatization and Commercialization) Act, 1999 by “unilaterally engaging General Electric for the concessioning of the Western and Eastern Rail Lines.

in his words during the debate on the motion Bassey said,”the Bureau of Public Enterprise and the Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility (NIAF) upon the approval of the National Council on Privatization in April 2015, developed a road map for the concessioning of the Western (Lagos-Kano) and Eastern (Port Harcourt-Maiduguri) rail lines despite the fact that the Nigerian Railway Corporation Act did not envisage a concessioning of the Corporation until recently amended.

“The BPE has already engaged the Global Infrastructure Facility (GIF) and World Bank in discussions on accessing funding for Transactions Advisers while the Ministry of Transport has formally appointed Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and Greenwich as financial advisers for the same purpose;

“Further aware that in August, 2016, the Vice President Yemi Osinbaio inaugurated the steering committee and technical Committees in line with the provision of Section 11 (k) of the Public Enterprises (Privatization and Commercialization) Act 1999 to fast track the process of concession of the Rail lines;

‎”it is the responsibility of the steering committee and technical committees of the NPC inaugurated by the Vice President in August, 2016 to negotiate with potential bidders for this concession, how then did the Ministry of Transport engage General Electric Company as Far Back As June, 2016.”

Bassey said the involment of the Minister in concession ‎Is contrary to the provisions of the BPE Act, the Federal Government had already constituted

After the conclusion of debate on the motion, Senate directed of its standing Committee to investigate the concessioning.

The Committees are, Senate ‎ Committees on Privatization, Land Transport, Finance, Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Special Duties, Trade and Investment and Judiciary to investigate the procedure adopted in the engagement of General Electric for the concession of the Rail Lines.‎

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