Amaechi sued by companies claiming he awarded rail contract to Chinese firm illegally

NIGERIA'S transport and justice ministers Rotimi Amaechi and Abubakar Malami have been dragged to court by a group of local companies over what they term the unlawful award of a contract for a190km railway line in Niger State to a Chinese firm without due process.

Currently in the middle of a railway upgrading programme, Nigeria is undergoing the modernisation of her archaic rail network, a lot of which has remained untouched since the colonial era. Nigeria's railway network is dominated by slow single gauge lines constructed by the British as far back as 1898.

Embarrassed by the primitivity of the network, the Nigerian government has begun converting the lines into standard gauge one and is awarding construction contracts across different sections of the line. Transport minister Rotimi Amaechi, has made the upgrading of the railway network his flagship programme.

However, yesterday, several companies sued Mr Amaechi and the attorney-general of the federation and justice minister Abubakar Malami, claiming the awarding of the Baro to Minna line contract was  done illegally. In the suit, the  Federal Ministry of Transportation and the benefitting firm, the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC ) were joined as defendants.

Plaintiffs in the suit were Duluidas Nigeria, Duliz Dredging and Construction and Hebbelyixin Fastener Company. In their writ of summons issued by their lead counsel, James Okoh, the plaintiffs asked the federal high court to cancel the letter of No Objection issued by the Bureau of Public Procurement in favour of CCECC for the award of the N91.5bn contract.

This disputed contract is for the reconstruction of the narrow gauge track from Minna in Niger State to Baro with an extension to the Baro River Port under a completion period of 36 months. Also, the plaintiffs prayed the court for an injunction restraining all the defendants from awarding or purporting to award the contract to the Chinese firm or any third party on the basis of the flawed bidding process.

In the alternative, they sought an order setting aside any purported award on the basis of the flawed and heavily compromised bid process by the Nigeria Railway Corporation, with the concurrence of other defendants. They also asked for an order restraining the transport minister or any of his agents from presenting the CCECC to the Federal Executive Council for the purpose of the award of the contract.

In their statement of claim, plaintiffs claimed to be seasoned and experienced experts in the rehabilitation of rail lines. They also asked the court to make a declaration that the action of Mr Amaechi and his agents in interfering with due process of the bid process for the contract damaged the integrity of the process of law.

They also want the court to declare that the minister and his agents were biased in their assessment of the bidding in favour of the CCECC. They then applied for an order of injunction against the minister, his ministry and the CCECC from continuing with the award of the contract and execution of same on the basis of a flawed process.

In the alternative, the plaintiffs sought general damages to be quantified against the defendants on a compensatory basis and compound interest for loss of use of money. A hearing in the matter has been fixed for February 17, 2022.