Barely one week after the Minister of transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi disclosed that the federal government has concluded plans to hire General Electirc to work out concession modalities on the Lagos-Kano rail line and Port Harcourt-Maiduguri, the House of Representatives yesterday opposed the plan, accusing the executive of discussing with GE, a US firm, to take over the lines, without involving the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
The lawmakers also noted that privatisation regulations were not complied with in the talks, adding that they sensed a plot to hand over the rail lines to powerful interests.
Accordingly, the House directed its Committee on Privatisation to investigate the development, which it said violated the Public Enterprises (Privatisation and Commercialisation) Act, 1999.
The motion moved by Chukwuemeka Ujam received wide support as Chairman of the committee, Mr. Yerima Ahmed, noted that by engaging GE, the FEC had assumed the duties of the BPE and the National Council on Privatisation.
According to him, “Section 11 (j) outlines the procedures for privatisation; there are four sections to be followed by the BPE and the agency is not being carried along.
“The NCP has not been inaugurated, and in its absence, the BPE is the secretariat for any privatisation.”
Hon. Sani Zorro, complained that certain private interests were plotting to appropriate the rail lines but failed to mention names.
He added, “They have illegally launched an attempt to take over our refineries; that was resisted.
“They are now making attempts to take over our remaining public assets. We call them parasites because they have the option of starting same businesses from the scratch.”
