Reps uncover scam of 169 ghost companies on N1trn railway contracts

The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee
on Failed Rail Contracts, yesterday, discovered
169 ghost companies registered as contractors
with the Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, for
projects valued at N1 trillion.
Chairman of the committee, Johnson
Agbonnayinman, (Ikpoba/Okha federal
constituency) discovered the scam when they
invite contractors to a meeting and no one
showed up stating that efforts to reach them
have so far proven abortive.
He added that so far, only the China Civil
Engineering Construction Corporation, CCECC,
responded to the committee’s letter.
He said:
“You are duty bound to produce the
contractors. They are nowhere to be found;
they are not faceless but yet they cannot
be reached.
“You gave them the job, so you should
produce them; we are holding you
responsible.”
The committee also asked the corporation’s MD,
Mr. Adeseyi Sijuwade, to make available the
agency’s record of Internally Generated Revenue,
IGR, between 2010 and 2014, and to explain to
the the committee what the IGR was used for.
In response, the MD said the IGR was used to
augment the agency’s overhead budget.