Commissioners who served under the administration of former Governor Nasir El-Rufai in Kaduna State between 2015 to 2023, have reacted to the recent order of the Federal High Court sitting the state.

Justice H Buhari of the Federal high court had on February 28, ordered for the interim forfeiture of the ₦1.37 billion allegedly diverted into a private account while ruling on the ex parte application filed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC),

The ₦1.3b was allegedly paid into the account of an unregistered company in respect of the Kaduna Light Rail Project.

In their reaction, the former cabinet members insisted that there was no basis for any forfeiture proceedings or court order, describing the court order as a sheer oppression and abuse of power to confiscate private assets and discourage foreign direct investments.

In a statement, the former commissioners challenged those they described as purveyors of lies and falsehood to come forward with genuine documents to contradict any of the foregoing facts.

The statement reads: “First, we wish to state that the Kaduna Light Rail Project came about as part of the infrastructural revolution of the Mallam Nasir El-Rufai administration to turn Kaduna into a modern and developed state. The project was conceived as a landmark legacy project by the State Executive Council in October 2015, to be funded with part of the just secured World Bank Performance for Results loan of about $350 million.

“Given the magnitude of the project, which was estimated to cost between US$600-700 million, we needed foreign collaboration and funding. We therefore started with adverts in reputable local and international publications including The Economist Magazine. A copy of the advertisement for Expression of Interest dated November 2015 in the national dailies is attached as Annex 1.

“In the end, an Indian company known as Skipper secured the award of the project following the competitive tender process. They were to be responsible for securing a loan of about 85% of the project cost from the Indian Export Import Bank, whilst Kaduna State Government was to pay 15% as equity. The contract term was consequently changed from an EPC to a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer so that Skipper will be responsible for ensuring the efficient operations of the light rail system and the repayment of the loan.

The statement admitted that the former government paid the sum of N890million to Skipper and GTA as the cost of feasibility study for the light rail project. Adding that the project couldn’t continue due to the non-approval of a Sovereign Guarantee by the Federal Government.

“However, the then Minister of Finance pushed back, saying the nation’s foreign debt burden was becoming too high and that she would be accused of being partial towards Kaduna State if they gave the Sovereign Guarantee. So, because of this, we could not continue with the project. Meanwhile, during the intervening period, we had increased our down payment to N12 billion as part of Kaduna State’s 15% equity contribution”.

“When it became obvious that the Sovereign Guarantee would not be we granted, we recalled the money from Sterling Bank. The bank refunded all the funds except for the cost of the feasibility study (₦890million as stated in Paragraph 4 above) that had been paid which remains the property of the Kaduna State Government. Anytime, anyone wants to embark on the project, he will just pick up the report and start the project. There were other costs that had been incurred by Skipper and GTA, which had to do with geo-mapping of corridors, land acquisition, domestic and international travel and other relevant expenses; for which an understanding was reached for a setoff against interest received on the deposit.

“As a responsible and transparent administration, we engaged the services of a forensic audit firm to ensure that the refunds due to Kaduna State Government were received “.

“It would be recalled that when some senior officials of the immediate past Kaduna State Executive Council were arrested by the ICPC, the allegation was that the ₦13 billion for the light rail project was missing.

“But, when evidence of the refund that was made to the Kaduna State Government and the report of the forensic audit that was conducted by the El-Rufai administration were made available to the ICPC, the narrative changed! Surprisingly, ICPC became hostile and decided to go after Sterling Bank and forced the bank to deposit ₦1.3billion into an Escrow Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), pending litigation to determine if any fraud or crime had been committed.

“Please note that the ₦1.3 billion which Sterling Bank was forced to pay into the Escrow Account is the addition of the N890 million cost of the Feasibility Study and about N400 million interest that accrued on the deposit in the joint venture account”.