This is a detailed look into how Nigeria wasted billions on the rehabilitation of a key railway line, with very little to show.
On March 19 this year, eight officials of the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the Nigerian Railway Corporation huddled together in Abuja with representatives of three contracting firms handling various sections of the Port Harcourt – Maiduguri Eastern Railway.
Insiders at the transportation ministry told PREMIUM TIMES the three firms – Eser W.A. Limited, CGGC Global Projects Nigeria Limited and Lingo Nigeria Limited – have since complied with the directive. For weeks, PREMIUM TIMES tried to obtain details of the exit plans submitted by the contractors but officials were reluctant to make the documents available.
A month-long investigation by this paper has, however, shown that the most problematic of the contracts was that awarded to Lingo Nigeria. Our investigation involved an extensive review of documents, interviews with officials and tracking of the rail track across three states, namely Plateau, Bauchi, and Gombe.
At the March 19 meeting at the transportation ministry, Mr Ukachukwu claimed his company delivered 60-70 per cent of the contract. Mr Ukachukwu even claimed that he had so well delivered on the job that trains were now using the part his company rehabilitated to ferry people from Kuru to Gombe. Advised by railway engineering experts, we set a methodical approach to determining sections rehabilitated by the Chinese firm hired by Lingo and those untouched. The railway tracks have sleepers – beams laid transversely under the tracks for support and on which trains move.
Bakin Kogi station in Plateau State. Rehabilitation work from Kuru stopped at a village, Ringi, just before the Bakin Kogi station and from there no work until inside Gombe station, meaning over 300 KM of no work. Taiwo Hassan Adebayo/PT“They did not reach Bakin Kogi,” a track official said of Lingo work from Kuru. “They stopped at a village before the station and the old one continued from there.”Then, from Ringi, no rehabilitation was done until a point inside Gombe station.
A part of the line, at Dukul in Gombe, without sleepers, making trains unable to pass Pic. Taiwo-Hassan Adebay/PT Determined to terminate the contract to enable re-procurement, the NRC had, via a March 20, 2020 letter, asked Mr Ukachukwu to submit an exit plan. The businessman had during the Abuja meeting told officials that “60-70 per cent of works have been completed and commissioned and trains are running from Kuru to Gombe”, according to minutes of the meeting seen by PREMIUM TIMES.
While Mr Ukachukwu continues to hope the N9.2 billion claim would be settled, the valuation document, which we saw, summarily termed his claim “not justifiable”. Also, in what appears to be supporting PREMIUM TIMES’ findings, out of the N9.4 already received, the valuation by the NRC has concluded that Mr Ukachukwu’s Lingo is owing the government some N1.6 billion for work not done.
When PDP controlled Nigeria, Mr Ukachukwu was a top party man and financier from Anambra State. His company, Lingo, was registered in 1992 in Maiduguri, incidentally the endpoint of the Eastern line which he was contracted to rehabilitate 20 years later, according to official filings. But it had no record of railway engineering.
Mr Sijuade’s NRC was then indicted for contract manipulations by the State Security Service, the agency said in March 2016. All that Lingo needed SHP for was subterfuge – and this would become apparent just soon after the contract was awarded. Having no technical expertise, Lingo, in the bid process and papers, claimed it was bidding “in association with Strasky Husty and Partners Limited of the Czech Republic.”
“Reference to Promptine Movement Services Limited was made in the documents of Messrs Lingo Nigeria Limited and letters of submission of bids for the two companies have every similarity in common contrary to the provision of PPA – and the so-called association with SHP was recorded.
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