By Gift Chapi Odekina
The House of Representatives on Wednesday grilled the Nigeria Armed Forces over an alleged $195.3 million contract awarded to Deep Blue company to ascertain their involvement.
The House Committee on Navy chaired by Yusuf Gagdi (APC,Plateau) while engaging the Nigeria Army and Navy expressed doubt on whether the contractor met required specification on platforms supplied so far regardless of the certificate of no objection issued by Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
The chairman of the committee while engaging the Navy and Army questioned whether the contract meet specifications and whether the Armed Forces where involved at the conceptualization and procurement process.
In his response to issues raised by members of the Committee on being carried along, Admiral Suleiman El-Ladan said the Armed Forces were neither involved at conceptualization or procurement process.
“The concept right from when it was initiated members of the Armed Forces were not part of it”.
Meanwhile, El-Ladan had confirmed receipts of two special mission vessels although he complained of the configuration of the equipments.
“The vessels in question were handed over. to us in June 2021, however, there are slight variations. We rejected the configuration of the initial specification”.
Also the representative of the Nigeria Army, Kolawole Bukoye informed the Committee that out of the 16 Buffalo Armoured vehicles contracted to be supplied by Deep Blue Project, only 6 were recieved and still expecting others.
“On the conceptualization and procurement process and of course whether it meets specification i will prefer to do a written submission on that. However, out of the 16 armoured vehicles, only 6 were recieved. The remaining 10 Buffalo Armoured vehicles are at the port awaiting clearance by Nigeria uCustoms”.
In same vein, the representative of Nigeria Air Force, Amadi Anababa declined to respond to questions posed to him by members of the Committee as he preferred to present a written submission.
“I prefer to make written submission”, he insisted.
Earlier, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigeria Ports Authority whom were expected to appear before the House Committee denied knowledge of the transaction.
The chairman of the House Committee had read correspondents from both agencies stating reasons for their non appearance before the honourable Committee.
“We have a letter here from CBN and it reads thus, ‘CBN does not have any information concerning this contract”.
“We another letter here from NPA (Nigeria Ports Authority) and it states as follows, “we are constrained to inform you that NPA does not have a business with Deep Blue Project contract”.
Gagdi in his concluding remarks thanked both the Navy, Army and Air Force for honouring the invitation of the Committee as he also informed that they will be engaging with Nigeria Maritime Administration Agency (NIMSA) and the Federal Ministry of Transportation and others next week Tuesday.
Accordingly, he directed the aforementioned Ministry to make available documents of the Deep Blue Project contract.
Recall that House of Representatives in December 2021 had passed a resolution mandating its Committee on Navy to investigate the legality of the Deep Blue contract agreement to ascertain whether it was in line with extant laws and regulations.
It also expressed concern over the standards of all platforms purchased for the Nigerian Navy to “determine whether they met specifications.
The committee was also to determine the actual amount of money spent by the Federal Government on the Deep Blue contract and “any other matter” relating to the Deep Blue contract.
The motion was moved by Benjamin Kalu (APC, Abia)
