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The Home of Representatives yesterday waded into the ongoing controversy between the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) and Intels Nigeria Limited.
The Home, whilst adopting a motion by Rep Diri Douye (PDP, Bayelsa), fixed to constitute an ad hoc panel to probe the instances that led to NPA’s decision to terminate an present agreement between it and Intels.
The committee is to confirm if owing course of action was followed in the termination of the agreement and other similar matters. It has two weeks to submit its report.
The Residence reported NPA should reverse the termination of the contract with Intels, pending the end result of the investigation.
The motion brought about major division among the the lawmakers, with a range of them opposing it. But it scaled through in the end.
Douye mentioned the agreement bundled the development and procedure of Apapa, Warri, Federal Ocean Terminal Port and Onne in Port Harcourt, which he said Intels used $900 million on.
However, he claimed, NPA terminated the contract in a letter to the Legal professional Typical of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN), on September 27, expressing the action was based mostly on an alleged illegality of the agreement.
The motion, the lawmaker mentioned, has destructive penalties on the Nigerians operating at Intels and their dependents.
In supporting the motion, Sergius Ogun (PDP, Edo), explained the House need to intervene in the subject as Intels staff were being now protesting at the ports.
Similarly, other lawmakers such as Hassan Saleh (APC, Benue), Simon Arabo (PDP, Kaduna) supported the movement.
But opposing the movement, Rep Rotimi Agunsoye (APC, Lagos) explained the Property should depart the subject for the judiciary to choose, calling on Intels to go to court docket.
Also, Rep Ahmad Babba Kaita (APC, Katsina) claimed there appeared to be monopoly on the component of Intels as all other aggressive companies folded up soon after the settlement was signed.
“Intels as we see today is not even owned by Nigerians. The ownership composition of the organization is purely foreign, but they use Nigerians as fronts and killed a lot of indigenous businesses working in the identical market,” he said.
Rep Aliyu Sani Madaki (APC, Kano), said Intels’ refusal to shell out the collected profits to the governing administration coffers via the Treasury Single Account (TSA) went contrary to Portion 81 of the structure which provides that “all revenues or other monies built on behalf of govt shall be paid out to an account identified as the Consolidated Income Account of the Federation.”
But Speaker Yakubu Dogara responded by saying there is nowhere in the environment that monopoly is an offence, declaring “some corporations are far better carried out in a monopolistic environment.”
[Daily Trust]
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