Obasanjo awarded Abuja rail project without design, MOU, says Senate panel

Obasanjo• Contract inflated by N2b per kilometre• Lawmakers demand refund of N392bFORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo awarded the Abuja Rail Project in 2007 with neither a design nor a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), according to the SenateCommittee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT).The then Minister of FCT and current governorof Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, was said to have signed the contract based on an uncalculated estimate.The revelation came as the committee discovered the contract, which stood at 60.67 kilometres, was inflated by $10 million (about N2 billion at N200 per dollar) per kilometre even as the length was later reduced to 45 kilometres without the refund of the cost for the 15.67 kilometres dropped.
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