The Project Manager of
a Chinese civil engineering and construction company, Etim Abak, on Monday told
the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory that former President
Olusegun Obasanjo awarded the Abuja Rail Project in 2007 without an engineering
design or a Memorandum of Understanding.
The Minister
of FCT and current governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, allegedly
signed the $841.645,898m contract based on an uncalculated estimate.
The
committee was also told that the contract, which was for 60.67-kilometre rail
project, was inflated by $10m per km and that the length was later reduced to
45km without refund of the cost for the 15.67 km that was dropped off from the
project.
The Senate
committee, led by Dino Melaye, who were at the site of the project to carry out
oversight functions, therefore, demanded the refund of $195,878,296.74 being
the amount for the 15.67km that was cut out, from the Chinese firm handling the
project.
Abak said,
“The contract was awarded based on conceptual design and estimates were not
properly done. There was no formal design submitted and rail bridges and
crossover bridges were not captured in the contract.”
-Punch
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