The project was to be funded from a $600 million financing portfolio secured as a soft credit loan. The loan had interest repayable in 10 years, after an initial ten years of grace.
Shehu Sani, a former Kaduna federal lawmaker has reacted after a court ordered President Muhammadu Buhari to account for $460 million Abuja Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) project.
This comes after the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) had dragged the federal government to court.
SERAP in a statement disclosed that the Federal High Court in Abuja had ordered the government of outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari to account for the spending of $460 million Chinese loan used to fund the project.
The court also ordered the government to “publish the total amount of money paid to Chinese and local companies and contractors and specific details of the names of the companies and contractors and status of the implementation of the project.”
According to a report by Punch, the CCTV contract was awarded to a Chinese firm in 2010 by the Goodluck Jonathan administration after then Minister of Finance Olusegun Aganga led a delegation to sign a Memorandum of Understanding in Beijing, China.
The project was to be funded from a $600 million financing portfolio secured as a soft credit loan. The loan had interest repayable in 10 years, after an initial ten years of grace.
However, the project failed to materialize and insecurity, which the CCTV project was meant to address, has worsened over the years.
Reacting, Sani described the project as a monumental fraud and wondered the reason why no one has being investigated or apprehended.
He wrote, “Abuja CCTV project is a $460m monumental fraud;No cameras,no money and no one is apprehended or investigated.”