NIMASA DG, Jamoh, engages in contract-award bazaar in twilight of tenure
Joseph Irikefe
Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Bashir Jamoh, has awarded contracts valued at about N9 billion as his tenure end in March 2024.
According to the report, the contracts were awarded on Friday, October 20, 2023, on day two of the agency’s 142nd Parastatal Tenders Board [PTB] meetings which opened on Thursday, October 19, 2023.
A source who is familiar with the development said that the DG caused to be awarded, contracts totaling about $10,000,000 (about N9 billion) few months to the end of his tenure.
The awards came at a time when the Federal Government is complaining of lack of funds and has been making strenuous efforts to increase the revenue of government.
The contracts awarded, as claimed, have no relevance to the core mandate of NIMASA.
Stakeholders, it was gathered, believed that the contracts were awarded to influential people in government to ensure Jamoh’s reappointment as director general.
It was disclosed that some of the contracts awarded included: the construction of skill acquisition centres in Zamfara State, Ondo State and Kafanchan, Kaduna State at N1.5 billion to three companies, Cratex construction Ltd, CGGC Company Ltd and Single Approach Engineering Ltd.
Two other contracts of N2 billion were said to have been awarded for the construction of medical science laboratories at federal university Kashere, Gombe State and construction of senate building at the maritime university, Okeronkoko, Delta State to Halims and Halims Interglobal Ltd and Axaka Ltd.
Meanwhile the same NIMASA under Jamoh has refused to release funds for payment of the certificate of competency (COC) of hundreds of students sponsored by NIMASA who have been abandoned abroad some for upwards of eleven years.
Sources at NIMASA further disclosed that “Jamoh always claims that there is no money but has been obsessed with award of contracts for all kinds of projects, particularly in the north.
“If he can get away with it under the former regime where his son in law, Tunde Sabiu, was the most powerful figure in the Buhari regime, why should he be allowed to continue with the same corruption and profligacy under the Tinubu government?”
It is alleged that none of the executive directors and senior directors of NIMASA were present at the Tenders Board meeting on that day because they had raised objections to the massive expenditure in the twilight of his tenure in office.
Some officials and Non- State actors, according to feelers, have called the attention of the ICPC and EFCC to the “heist” going on in the agency.
It could not be confirmed if formal petitions had been submitted to the anti-corruption agencies for necessary administrative actions.