The Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi has said that due process was followed and approval duly secured in the award of the $195.3 million Deep Blue contract project to HSL International Limited.
On July 27, 2017, the Federal Ministry of Transportation on behalf of the federal government had entered into a contract (the Deep Blue Contract) of $195,300,000 (N59,839,930,000) with a foreign private company, HLS International Limited, for the supply of certain security and surveillance equipment and systems, and also for establishing the Integrated National Coastal Surveillance and Waterways Protection Solutions with command and control of infrastructure in the country’s territorial waters.
In addition to the contract sum of $195,300,000, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) agreed to pay the sum of $19,530,000 to HLSI as Management Training Consideration and according to Appendix 4 of the agreement, both sums would be paid in monthly installments, over a period of 36 months from July 2017 until June 2020, as further payments were also made as at July 2017 to date.
The lawmakers had in December 2021, while adopting a motion sponsored by Hon. Benjamin Kalu, mandated the Committee on Navy to investigate the legality of the contract agreement to know whether it was in line with extant laws and regulations.
The Committee was also mandated to ascertain the standards of all platforms purchased to the Nigerian Navy and determine whether they are according to the actual amount of money spent by the government on the contract and any other matter relating to it.
However, addressing the House Committee on Navy chaired by Hon. Yusuf Gagdi, the minister while giving a detailed background of how the project was conceptualized said they got approval from Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) after getting the president’s approval.
He noted that the execution of the contract had reduced piracy and the level of crime on Nigerian waters, This Day reports.
Amaechi said, “I said it was an RFP but this time we didn’t ask them. By the time they came forward when we took over the reins of affairs in government, we were number one in terms of piracy in the world.
“It was Somali, Gulf of Elem, the Gulf of Guinea and we are the Gulf of Guinea. In less than two to three years, we were now number one. Rampant killings. You heard of the fact that Denmark came to our water and killed two Nigerians and arrested and we protested.
“It was worse than that. It became so bad that Americans wrote to us that they want to come with their guns, we said no, you can’t come into Nigeria because of sovereignty. And they said they won’t come down from the vessel. We said whether you come down or not, the moment you enter our water, you are under our protection.
“But what they are telling us is that you can’t protect us because you have been having this crime all the time. It got so bad that Europe now had a meeting and decided to send their war vessels.”
He said further: “At that point, Nigeria had no option but to act and I wrote to the President for an approval to engage them and he approved. We set up a committee headed by NSA, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of Defence State, IGP, DG, SSS.
“And the ends of that assessment, there was a bit of disagreement between us and then, we went back to the President who then removed the NSA and replaced him with the Minister of Defence. It was at the time that we went to the BPP after getting the President’s approval. It was the BPP that gave us approval. That’s what happened.”
The minister, however, wondered why there was special interest in the project, saying that the parliament and EFCC had looked into the matter before with a report submitted to the president.
“I worry a lot about what is the special interest in this deep blue project. I was to be in Nairobi last week because the AU gave us an award for it. Our crime rate in the sea has come down drastically,” he added.
However, in their presentation, the BPP which was said to have issued the certificate of no objection to the HSL failed to provide evidence showing the legitimacy of the company.
Speaking on behalf of the Director-General, Mamman Ahmadu, the officer who reviewed the procurement, Isaiah Yesefu, said the company was qualified to handle the project.
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