“It is disconcerting that less than five weeks to the end of the current administration, the Federal Executive Council can close its eyes to a valid court order and allow itself to be misguided.”
Press Release
*Photo: Buhari*
In the spirit of the true teachings of Islam, President Muhammadu Buhari left the Eid prayers last Friday and asked Nigerians for forgiveness, particularly those he might have hurt while discharging the duties of his office.
Indeed, many Nigerians have a forgiving heart and will listen to Mr President.
We at Accountable Leadership for Better Nigeria Initiative, ALBNI, strongly believe that if President Buhari genuinely desires forgiveness, he should also take deliberate and immediate steps to make amends. He has five weeks in the saddle to redeem his image!
Indeed, President Buhari has an opportunity for true repentance by rejecting the final ratification of memo EC (2023) 127 Ratification of the President’s Anticipatory Approval for the Implementation of the Nigeria Customs Modernisation Project. The memo waspassed last Wednesday at the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting where Vice President Yemi Osinbajo presided.
The government officials who presided over the drafting of the ‘offensive’ memo and rammed the same through FEC approval have done a great disservice to the legacy of President Buhari. History will bear witness, sooner than later.
The Accountable Leadership for Better Nigeria Initiative calls on President Buhari and the Federal Government to immediately reverse the controversial re-approval of the concession agreement onNigeria Customs Service Modernisation Project, also called the E-Customs Project. President Buhari must jettison the extracts of the odious memo to be presentedon Wednesday, 26 April at the FEC meeting!
With a subsisting legal dispute and a valid court order in the aftermath of the first concession to Messrs E. Customs HC Project Limited on September 2, 2020 by the Federal Executive Council, any new approval as proposed by the Minister of Finance, amounts to impunity and approving lawlessness on the part of the government.
ALBNI finds it curious that the Minister of State, Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mr Clem Agba while addressing the press last Wednesday, feigned ignorance of a pending court order on the matter.
Messrs Dipo Okpeseyi Ahmed Raji, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria, had in separate letters, warned the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice; the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning and Secretary to the Government of the Federation of “underhand efforts being made to obtain FEC’s approval and or ratification of the re-award of the e-Customs Modernisation Project.”
A Federal High Court in Abuja had last year restrained the Federal Government from enforcing or giving effect to an agreement on the Customs Modernisation Project and it is on the weight of this matter that the lawyers urged FEC to suspend, discontinue or discountenance any request to initiate deliberations or a fresh request for approval for the award of the said contract to any other bidder aside the original approval granted by FEC to Messrs E- Customs Project Limited.
They then harped on the need for government to obey the order of the court in a suit FHC/ABJ/CS/848/2022 filed by the original concessionaire, Messrs E-Customs HC Project. On 20 February, 2023, Justice Inyang Ekwo asked all parties to preserve the res of the matter and do nothing to interfere with the proceedings. The case was last Wednesday adjourned to 8 June, 2023, for definite hearing.
It is on record that Messrs E-customs HC Project Limited and Bionica Technologies (West Africa) Limited have jointly challenged the alleged unlawful and fraudulent replacement of their names in the concession agreement earlier approval by President Buhari and ratified by FEC on 2 September, 2020.
The firm had raised the alarm of “a sinister plot” to scheme it out as the approved concessionaire and replace it will an entity registered at the Corporate Affairs Commission on 5 April, 2022 with one Zainab Jummai Umar –Ajijola as one of its directors and shareholders.
Justice Ekwo while ruling on the ex-parte application, had granted the prayers of the plaintiffs having placed sufficient evidence of interest in the concession project.
Defendants in the suit are the Federal Government of Nigeria; Attorney-General of the Federation; Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning; the Infrastructure Regulatory Concession Commission; Nigeria Customs Service; Trade Modernization Project Limited; Huawei Technologies Limited; Africa Finance Corporation and Bergman Security Consultant and Supplies Limited being 1st to 9th defendants respectively.
The plaintiffs had in their statement of claim narrated how they proposed to carry out customs modernization project through several government officials for the benefit of the Nigeria Customs Service.
Like every right-thinking Nigerian, we feel that the nation’s highest decision-making body which in September 2020 approved a 20-year Public Private Partnership – PPP concession, valued at $3.1billion to Messrs E. Customs HC Project Limited as initial concessionaire, ought to be thorough, diligent, circumspect and err on the side of due process and rule of law!
While government officials can be parochial in their actions, majority of Nigerians are waiting to reap the benefits promised by the project, especially full automation of Nigeria Custom’s business processes and procedures through the development and implementation of a robust and secure ICT platform, implementation of modern customs border stations, airports and marine posts as well as revenue enhancement.
It is disconcerting that less than five weeks to the end of the current administration, the Federal Executive Council can close its eyes to a valid court order and allow itself to be misguided. ALBNI finds it curious that the Minister of State, Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mr Clem Agba while briefing the press, feigned ignorance of a pending court order on the matter!
We call on the EFCC and ICPC to investigate allegations that one Ahmadu Saleh, said to be a close ally of the Comptroller General of the NCS, Col. Hameed Ali (retd), is biological brother of Zainab Jummai Umar-Ajijola, both directors of Bergman Security Consultants, the new concessionaire. What a coincidence that Saleh is Chairman and Zainab is Managing Director of the now-favoured concessionaire! Both were allegedly prompted by Hammed Ali to register Trade Modernisation Project Limited on April 5, 2022. This company has found its way to become the Special Purpose Vehicle for a project approved by FEC in September, 2020!
ALBNI views the second hurried FEC approval on the e-Customs project as a deliberate contempt for an order of the court in a desperate bid to empower cronies of retiring President Buhari before the end of his administration. These cronies, we understand, are directors in Bergman Security Consultants and Supplies Limited, a company that was unilaterally imposed by the Comptroller General of Customs as “Co-sponsor” in the first Concession Approval without playing any role whatsoever in the Project Development.
CAC records reveals that these same directors of Bergman went ahead to register ‘Trade Modernisation Project Limited (TMPL) on April 7, 2022 and Ali then conferred the title of “Lead Sponsor” of the project on Bergman in order to sign the adulterated concession agreement on May 30, 2022, barely 7weeks after registration of a new SPV, that is TMPL, now illegally referred to as the concessionaire. The alter ego behind these two corporate entities is Col Hameed Ali, the Comptroller General of Customs! The E-Custom project has now been designed as a retirement package for him rather than as a Legacy Project for President Buhari.
The willingness to side-track due process and best practice methods by top officials of the Buhari administration may have thrown the e-Customs project in a cul-de-sac. With the recourse to litigation by the parties involved in the project, it is now coming to light that President Buhari may have been misled to override an approval granted by the FEC, where he presided on 2 September, 2020.
We call on the Federal Government in the interest of justice and fairness, to reverse the approval and await the outcome of the pending case before the court. This will serve to position the outgoing Government as law-abiding while guaranteeing that lawful decision is taken on the project without grossly violating Section 2 of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission Act 2005.
That is the only path of honour to avoid erecting legal landmines for the in-coming administration and stop making Nigeria a laughing stock among international investors!
e-signed
Remi Adebayo
Executive Director, ALBNI