The House of Representatives said on Monday that Nigerian government officials signed empty repayment loan documents for the development of the Nigeria Rail sector even before the terms of the loans were negotiated.
The House said it discovered that the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and officials of his ministry, signed a commercial contract without any clear cut financial arrangement while most of the contracts agreement did not have local content clauses
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Chairman, House Committee on Treaties, Protocols and Agreements, Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai disclosed this during the resumed investigative hearing on the review of bilateral loan agreements and commercial contracts agreements by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) also said that some of the loans collected by the government were signed even before the terms were negotiated.
However, Amaechi said there was no such contract existing in the Ministry as the only contract was the $1.6 billion loan for the Lagos/Ibadan rail project signed by the Buhari government and the about $800 million dollars loan signed by the Jonathan government.
He challenged the Committee to furnish his Ministry with details of the contract to enable them make necessary responses.
