TheCable

The house of representatives committee on Nigerian content development and monitoring is investigating an alleged breach of the local content act regarding the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline project.

The committee, on Tuesday, summoned the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Brentex/China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPP) Consortium and Bablink Resources Nigeria Ltd, following a petition by the Local Content Advocacy and Management Group (LCAMG).

The group alleged that the contractors that bid for the project were swapped after the federal executive council (FEC) approved the contract.

Yusuf Usman, NNPC chief operating officer for gas and power, said the contract was awarded to Brentex/CPP consortium and the consortium later brought in Bablink.

Usman argued that the NNPC complied with the local content act, as well as other laws in relation to the pipeline project.

On his part, Sani Abubakar, executive vice-chairman, Brentex Nigeria Ltd, said his organisation is 100 percent Nigerian- owned and is in partnership with Bablink.

Abubakar said Bablink was not part of the consortium and thereby not involved in the AKK gas pipeline project.

However, Bolaji Isiaka, chief executive officer of Bablink, accused Brentex of sidelining his firm on the project despite providing all the technical framework presented to win the contract.

“We have tried every means of conflict resolution. All they could say is that I should go to court. That is why I am here to seek your intervention on the issue,” Isiaka told the committee.

“What we want the parliament to do is to force NNPC and the Chinese company to come to the table and provide and take away the Chinese content from the contract and allow the local content to provide it.

“Let nobody deceive you, China is not doing us a favour by borrowing us money. They have collected a Sovereignty Guarantee, meaning that we are going to pay a very high rate. They have taken more than 60 percent. In the local content law, there is nothing like Chinese content. We will not accept it and if we need to go to court, we will do that.”

Legor Idagbo, chairman of the committee, directed NNPC, Brentex/CPP and Bablink to bring all documents related to the contracts and all agreements between parties involved within one week for further legislative action.

The committee also summoned the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Infrastructural Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) to make available relevant documents on the deal in order to ascertain the ownership of Brentex.

TheCable had reported that the federal government secured a $2.5 billion loan from China to fund the AKK gas pipeline project.