₦airaland Forum

Keneking:
Obasanjo did his best as a President. When you compare him to Jonathan Ebele Goodluck, you would understand that Eba is different from Eba.

I mean the one you swallow at Sheraton is different from the one in Isolo. Jonathan sef

okpurukata:
OBJ remains one of the greatest criminals this country ever produced.

AceKid:
The Project Manager of a Chinese civil engineering and construction company, Etim Abak, on Monday told the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory that former President Olusegun Obasanjo awarded the Abuja Rail Project in 2007 without an engineering design or a Memorandum of Understanding.

The Minister of FCT and current governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, allegedly signed the $841.645,898m contract based on an uncalculated estimate.

The committee was also told that the contract, which was for 60.67-kilometre rail project, was inflated by $10m per km and that the length was later reduced to 45km without refund of the cost for the 15.67 km that was dropped off from the project.

The Senate committee, led by Dino Melaye, who were at the site of the project to carry out oversight functions, therefore, demanded the refund of $195,878,296.74 being the amount for the 15.67km that was cut out, from the Chinese firm handling the project.

Abak told senators that the contract was signed by the then FCT minister without design and MoU, and that it was carried out based on conceptual design.

Abak said, “The contract was awarded based on conceptual design and estimates were not properly done. There was no formal design submitted and rail bridges and crossover bridges were not captured in the contract.”

Melaye said his findings revealed that the rail project was inflated by over $10m per km and wondered why such an act was perpetrated by the handlers of the project.

The senator added that the contract sum was $841.645,898m and that the project completion period was 48 months while the scope of work was 60.67km standard gauge, with double railway tracks and associated permanent way within the FCT.

He wondered why the 60.67km project was later reduced to 45. 245km without reduction in its cost.

He said, “Now, you have reduced the length of the standard gauge from 60.67km to 45.245km, meanwhile, there is no concomitant reduction if you juxtapose the length in kilometres and the reduction in terms of the cost.

“If we are to spend $841m for 60.67km and now you have reduced to 45.245km and the only reduction in terms of monetary value is from $841.6m to $823m and with a reduction of just about $17m, that to me is not commensurate to the reduction in terms of length.

“The Federal Government has so far invested N31.5bn and another N7.6bn from the SURE-P fund and if you put these together, we have altogether N39.1bn invested in the rail project, leaving the balance of N113. 233,155.32.

“The N3bn proposed in the 2016 national budget for the FCT was for the rail project. If you look at this, I would want to say that I did a personal research and looked at rail construction of the same specifics, of the same technology across the globe and one cannot but complain that the cost of railway project in Nigeria is on a very high side.”

He wondered why it was costing the Federal Government so much to construct a railway of just 45 km unlike the construction of the same specifics across the globe.

He questioned the rationale behind the government’s loan of $500m from Exim Bank of China for the project, saying that the money which the Federal Government had so far injected into the project was enough to execute the entire project.

He said, “From my own calculation, in fact, from my comparison with other rail projects across the world, the Federal Government investment in this project is enough to execute the project without taking a loan as high as $500m from China.

“From our research and it’s very simple, the world is now a global village. As you are sitting here now, on your phone you can google, even in India and Egypt.

“Fortunately, one of those projects in Zambia was also done by this same company, CCE. We have six countries and the average cost per km, none is above $4m per km. Why is the Nigerian project costing $13.8m approximately $14m?”


Source : http://www.punchng.com/obasanjo-awarded-841-6m-rail-project-without-mou-chinese-firm/

Keneking:
Obasanjo did his best as a President. When you compare him to Jonathan Ebele Goodluck, you would understand that Eba is different from Eba.

I mean the one you swallow at Sheraton is different from the one in Isolo. Jonathan sef

bandol:
It is high time melaye left Obasanjo alone else he would have himself to blame later. Politics is a game that should be played with wisdom

RichYoungNigger:
Goodluck Jonathan built rail roads and bought real trains but Nigerians will always criticize him and call him corrupt.

Obasanjo commissioned rail roads, took the money and he's Buhari's best friend and Buhari never said anything about him being corrupt.

bandol:
It is high time melaye left Obasanjo alone else he would have himself to blame later. Politics is a game that should be played with wisdom

bandol:
It is high time melaye left Obasanjo alone else he would have himself to blame later. Politics is a game that should be played with wisdom

bandol:
It is high time melaye left Obasanjo alone else he would have himself to blame later. Politics is a game that should be played with wisdom

Keneking:
Obasanjo did his best as a President. When you compare him to Jonathan Ebele Goodluck, you would understand that Eba is different from Eba.

I mean the one you swallow at Sheraton is different from the one in Isolo. Jonathan sef

idupaul:
You kind is the the real problem in Nigeria....can't u see this was one of the greatest fraud in the history of the railway and it was organized by OBJ.... he did same in fuel importation , in subvention allocation, in airport reforms, in Electricity generation , in the debt buy back scam , in police trustfund mega scam., in the presidential Library heist, in the sale of Federal govt buildings in Lagos scam. ..bro we could list OBJ scams forever....truth be told as corrupt as Jonathan's govt was it is a learner when it comes to OBJ. .the difference is Jonathan was widespread amongst the participants but in OBJs it was just OBJ and his closest allies

bandol:
It is high time melaye left Obasanjo alone else he would have himself to blame later. Politics is a game that should be played with wisdom

LRNZH:
OBJ?

I am not surprised. The man who wanted third term and brought the ilks of Jonah upon us.

a2personal2013:
Nobody wants to speak because it's Obj. He is certainly immuned. He is the greatest hypocrite in this country. He thinks he is the only saint. The next excuse we will hear from our esteemed youth will be "where is the evidence".

We must not let these politicians, Gej, Obj or PMB fool us. We must continue to mount pressure on the govt so that we can get a better Naija.

I still have great hopes that Nigeria will be great again. Say no to these failed leaders.

OlayinkaFawaz:
dey fight am dey go, u fit carry rambo join... leave what to do and face whats useless;(

Keneking:
Obasanjo did his best as a President. When you compare him to Jonathan Ebele Goodluck, you would understand that Eba is different from Eba.

I mean the one you swallow at Sheraton is different from the one in Isolo. Jonathan sef

ngooka:
EFCC what are you waiting for ni?