A maritime expert, Barrister Akpan Umoh has accused losers in the bidding
process for the dredging of Calabar Channel for consistently sponsoring
negative publicity against the project.
Reacting specifically to recent media reports to the effect that the
Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) had authorized the payment of $35m (about
N7billion) to Calabar Channel Management Limited, the Calabar-based
Maritime expert wondered why the losers have relentlessly wedged a media
war against the dredging of the Calabar Port and “creating a picture of
controversy in the project where none exists”.
Umoh told journalists in Calabar yesterday that as critical stakeholders
in the Calabar Port project, they had carried out discreet investigation
into the entire bidding process for the dredging of the Channel and
discovered that “the entire contract followed due process, obtained all
the necessary approvals and vetting of the agreement by the Office of the
Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) before its execution”.
He said the stakeholders would resist any attempt to thwart the project
which is “very strategic to the economic development of Nigeria
particularly the North- Central, South-South and South- East regions of
the country”.
“In addition, when functional, it will increase the volume of vessel
traffic and cargo throughput in the port, decongest Lagos ports and reduce
cost of doing business for Calabar-based businessmen who spend additional
transport cost to take delivery of their consignments in Lagos and Onne
ports and as such we will defend the project with the last pint of our
blood until it is actualized”, the expert stated.
He said rather than support and encourage the joint venture company
between Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) and a consortium of companies led by
Messrs Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company Limited, for the
dredging of the Calabar Port which has not been paid a dime but has
mobilized to site and made tremendous progress, “those against the
project have instead mounted stiff negative campaign to frustrate it”.
According to him, “though CCM has not been paid it is gladdening to note
that it is presently carrying out capital and maintenance dredging of the
water channel well known for its shallow draught that has hampered bigger
vessels from coming into the port in the last decades.
“So far, CCM has deployed dredgers, survey vessels, buoyage tender, wreck
removal cranes and other ancillary marine crafts to the water channel for
its operation and was concentrating on spots in the channel critical to
navigation which so far, 16.3 kilometers out of the envisaged 84kilometers
to be dredged”.
Meanwhile, investigations reveal that contrary to the falsehood been
bandied by those against the project, the removal of the immediate past
Managing Director of NPA, Mallam Habib Abdullahi has nothing to do with
the project.
An insider at the NPA told our correspondent that the former MD was sacked
for other misdemeanors and not for the Calabar Channel project as “It was
he who signed the contract and supervised the appointment of consultants
and technical auditors for the project. All the project board meetings for
the two years that the project was signed were chaired by Mallam Habib
Abdullahi.So why could he have been removed for a project that he was so
much involved in?”
According to the insider, one of the Joint Venture Companies (JVCs) which
was to benefit from the Calabar dredging project if it was not awarded to
the Niger Global Consortium, is also believed to be behind the campaign of
calumny against the project. He said there is nothing wrong with paying
the contractors for the work done as it followed due process and the
agreement duly approved and signed.
He cautioned against exposing civil servants to unnecessary politics and
blackmail in the discharge of their duties.
It would be recalled that the contract for the project was signed in 2013
while on November 17, 2014, immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan
flagged off the operations of Calabar Channel Management (CCM),through the
then Minister of Transport Alhaji Idris Umar.
The four channels in the country were properly advertised for at the same
bid and Consultant and the award of the contract followed due process.
The bid process for CCM was handled by Mobotek, an international acclaimed
consultants based in Holland in line with international best practices.
During the process, 49 companies bid for the contract with the active
participation of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) which after a
rigorous exercise, the best company which in the instance case, the Niger
Global Engineering Consortium of companies emerged.
Mobotek is the same consultant that handled the Lagos Channel Management
Company, the Bonny Channel Management Company and Calabar Channel
Management Company through the same bid process.
Consequently, the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) duly certified and
issued ‘No Objection’ Certificate before the contract was consummated.
The consortium of companies dredging the Calabar Channel led by Messrs
Niger Global is made up of Boskalis of Holland, world number one dredging
company, West Minister Dredging, a global leader in dredging in the
industry and others.