The Federal government of Nigeria has realized that the Lagos-Kano Rail contract awarded by the immediate past administration to a Chinese corporation was inflated by $800 million.
The Chinese firm handling the project claimed that the contract was awarded to it for $7.6 billion contrary to the documents of the last administration that claimed that it was awarded at the cost of $8.3 billion.
According to reports the contract was not presented to the National Assembly for appropriation before the past administration went ahead in 2007 to make an advance payment of $250 million to the Chinese Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CCECC) that was awarded the project.
President Umaru Yar’Adua’s government has vowed to revoke the inflated contract.
The Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Dr. Tanimu Yakubu, declared the contract illegal at the Abuja Business and Investment Roundtable last week.
‘For an administration that prides itself in the rule of law, I don’t see how an illegality will be strictly adhered to in the name of continuity. Since the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo did not present the budget to the National Assembly, the present administration would revoke it in view of the administration’s commitment to the rule of law and due process,’ the chief Economic adviser said.
