There are indications that the wind of probes currently sweeping through the nation may soon get to the immediate past Vice President; Architect Namadi Sambo over the controversial renovation of the headquarters building of the Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA).
The N5Billion contract was awarded to Messrs Sageto Nigeria Limited, a company in which the immediate past Vice President allegedly has commanding interests.
Even though the contract was awarded about seven years ago, after fire gutted a portion of the six-storey building, it is yet to be completed, after a substantial per cent of the contract sum has reportedly been paid.
Sources said that even the floors that have been completed are replete with broken down facilities.
Investigations by our correspondents revealed that the Ministry of Transportation is in receipt of petitions about what is alleged to be shoddy jobs done by the contractor.
Shipping Position Daily learnt that complaints about the alleged shoddy and delayed completion of the job came from even within the NPA.
It was also confirmed that, there are allegations that the multi-Billion contract may have been overvalued. It was to include physical renovation and interior decoration.
There are insinuations that the ex-Vice President may have taken advantage of his position to secure the contract.
Our investigations revealed that the NPA headquarters renovation contract was awarded shortly after the tenure of Mallam Abdul Salam Mohammed. He was succeeded by Engineer Omar Suleiman.
The bid for the contract was still going on when Abdul Salam Mohammed was removed as Managing Director of the agency.
It was learnt that the cost of the contract and the rented office space into which NPA staff moved when the renovation started might have also been inflated.
Our correspondent confirmed last week that one of the many assignments that have been given to the new managing director of NPA; Ms Hadiza Balla-Usman is to dig into several allegations of financial infractions in the agency, and that the renovation contract is one of them.
A source at the Ministry of Transport told our correspondent last week that, while it is true that the NPA headquarters renovation contract went through different layers of scrutiny such as the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), there is no doubt that the personalities involved swayed the options in favour of the contractor.
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