Centenary City: House C’ttee Indicts Anyim, Mohammed, Recommends Probe by EFCC
The House of Representatives Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has indicted the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, and former Minister of the FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, for their roles in the management of the Centenary City project.
The committee found that the project, which was worth $18.37 billion, was awarded to two companies that formed the Centenary City Plc with a combined share value of N20,000.
It therefore also indicted the owners of the two companies: Ms. Boma Ozobia and Mr. Paul Oki, who allegedly share the same address.
Led by Hon. Herman Hembe, the committee recommended that law enforcement agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), should investigate the roles of the four persons in the management of the project.
The recommendations were contained in the report of the committee following its investigations into ‘alleged irregularities surrounding the Centenary City project’, laid before the House at plenary yesterday.
The report obtained by THISDAY is yet to be considered and adopted by the House of Representatives.
It accused Anyim, as SGF, of acting on behalf of the company by applying for Certificate of Occupancy on its behalf and awarding a contract on behalf of the company for the relocation of 330KV DC transmission lines crossing the proposed city.
Anyim also wrote Mohammed, on behalf of the company, requesting for details of bank accounts to pay N1.2billion into, for the compensation of displaced persons, and also wrote the minister to request for additional land for the company, the report said.
The committee said Anyim ought to have known that financial consideration was the real essence for sourcing for a private investor for the project, which was initiated under the Goodluck Jonathan administration to mark the centennial anniversary of Nigeria in 2014.
“As far as the committee could determine, there was nothing in the portfolio of Centenary City Plc, to suggest that the company had the financial capacity to implement a project of $18,376,660,950... the two companies that own Centenary City Plc, have a combined share value of N20,000,” the report read.
It accused Mohammed of revoking lands that had existing rights of occupancy, some of which were issued by him, and re-allocating the same land to the company, in a manner inconsistent with the Land Swap Gazette and Land Use Act.
The committee therefore recommended for the restoration of revoked lands for the project, back to its original owners
But a member of the committee, Hon. Linus Okorie said the committee did not present the entire facts, and the recommendations did not flow from true facts or findings of the investigative hearing.
Okorie who hails from Ebonyi State like Anyim, in a memo he submitted to the committee, disagreed with the recommendations, saying the R-of O revoked by Mohammed in respect of the area covered by the project should be restored to the original owners.
He noted that the basis for the recommendation was misplaced as the committee confirmed that the project was not part of the land swap programme, and so cannot be guided by land swap terms.
Okorie noted that the recommendation that Anyim and others be investigated by anti-corruption bodies, “appears to have come from the moon.”
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday said it had tendered and was expecting contractor financiers to take up the construction of its 650 kilometres northern gas line network which would run from Ajaokuta in Kogi State to Abuja, Kaduna and then Kano when completed.
The tender processes for the construction of the line, it said would be concluded by the end of the second quarter (Q2) of 2017, after which preferred bids who would recoup their investments from the operations of the line ought to be announced.
The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, stated this in an interview with journalists shortly after his remarks at the 2017 edition of the annual