Hon. Yusuf Buba Yakub, chairman, House of Representatives Ad-hoc committee investigating the non-functionality of 6 Inland Ports, on Monday unveiled plans to investigate the multi-billion naira contracts for the dredging of seaports across the country.
Hon. Yakub who disclosed this during a chat with Parliamentary Correspondents after a closed door meeting with the officials of Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), however explained that some of the regulatory agencies namely: Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) were not invited ab-initio to attend the investigative hearing.
He said: “the government at the highest level has been doing everything to make sure these things are done for instance when you talk about dredging which is a major factor why big vessels cannot move into the eastern ports.
“A lot of contracts has been given out for dredging and government has been paying money but where you have lapses on the part of contractors not delivering or the agencies responsible to make sure these contracts are delivered have gone to sleep.
“If they have delivered or not, have they taken government money or taken public funds without delivering, that is what we will find and make sure the ports are dredged. Once you dredge the ports, the vessels can move.
“Then we can now talk about security because some of the reasons they do not go there are the fear of piracy, high sea robbery and so on. We will also look at that, what is NIMASA doing, they are the agency responsible for that.
“The committee is time bound, we are only given six weeks to report back to the House on what needs to be done and so our responsibility to know what needs to be done are done through our normal oversight function and make sure implementers of government policy are doing what needs to be done.
“And anybody that is found wanting in the cause of our assignment, we will make sure they face the law, whatever will stand on our way, we will make sure we push them aside.
“Because the ports are like the nose of the economy and ones they are chocked, then the whole economy will suffocate because everything comes in through the ports.
“You cannot bring very heavy goods through air cargo, you cannot bring PMS or crude and it is very expensive for our businessmen to do that, the ports must work for the economy to open up and that we will do and it must work.
“It is just CBN that we have not seen and we will use our constitutional powers to make sure they appear before us on this matter,” Hon. Yakub said.
While speaking on the threat issued by the Ad-hoc Committee last week, Hon. Yakub affirmed that “there was a mix up in the invitation sent to them, but agencies like the Customs just refused to attend because we had sent a letter to them and their usual manner, they refused to attend and that was why we summoned them to come today.
“Some of the agencies were not invited ab-initio but because of some of the reports by the agencies during the hearing, we deemed it fit to invite them to give us some more information we need for the working of the committee.
“Today, they all met with us and they have all made their presentations, except the CBN and then we are issuing a last warning to the CBN to make sure they make themselves available, if not we will use our constitutional powers to summon them by force,” he noted.
Most relevant stakeholders who made presentations last Thursday include: Federal Ministry of Transport, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Shippers Owners Association of Nigeria, Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Navy amongst others in the private sector had made appearances and made presentations.
Hon. Yakub assured that the reports of the Committee would be made public at the end of the investigation.
The ports are Warri, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Onne, and Onitsha Inland Ports complexes.
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