Reps summon contractors, ex-minister over rail contract scam

THE House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the N1.69 trillion railway rehabilitation contracts has invited former Minister of Transport, Isa Bio Ibrahim; Department of State Service (DSS), Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and 27 contractors allegedly involved in the misappropriation of the fund.

Chairman of the committee, Johnson Agbonayinma, has however denied that his committee has submitted an interim report of the investigation to the House.

The committee disclosed that those invited are expected to appear before it on Thursday to explain their respective roles in the management of funds made available by the Federal Government to revamp the railway sector.

According to a source close to the committee, the DSS was specifically invited to give details of the recommendations it made to the office of the SGF on how the contracts were poorly managed between 2010-2014, while the SGF on the other hand is expected to explain what happened to the report submitted to it by the DSS.

On the former minister, the source said: “As you can see, the man has a lot to tell the committee because he kick-started the whole process in the first place.

“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.”