Senate Committee on Trade and Investment has uncovered a Special Economic Zone Company listed for N42billion appropriation from the 2019 budget proposals by the Federal Ministry of Industry ,Trade and Investment.
The discovery of the illegal company, led to rejection of the N15.633 billion 2019 budget proposals the Ministry tabled before the committee for approval .
Trouble over the alleged illegal company came up when the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment , Dr Okechukwu Enelama, appeared before the committee on Monday for budget defence session.
The Minister had in the course of presentation on the 2018 budget performance and 2019 proposals to the committee headed by Senator Sabo Mohammed ( APC Jigawa North West) for approval , tabled a booklet containing 2019 budget proposals for all agencies under his ministry.
But after his presentation , the Chairman of the committee referred him to item 2 on page 7 of the booklet which has N42.091billion budgetary allocation for Nigeria Special Economic Zone Company not known to be one of the 17 agencies under the Ministry.
The Minister in his response said the Company was established through Presidential initiative and approval given it at Cabinet meeting in May 2018 .
He said : “One of the areas that this government has focused on is infrastructure. The second area is industrialization and the two have something in common.
“If the government tries to do it alone, it would be extremely tasking. So the President directed that we should bring other partners that can combine with whatever monies we have to build world class infrastructure which led to the establishment of the company in partnership with other investors. ”
But when asked to explain the owners of the company , the minister said the federal government and other shareholders to which the committee chairman proved him wrong.
According to tbe Chairman of the Committee , a document obtained by them from the Corporate Affairs Commission ( CAC) containing information on how the company was registered , shows that the Company name is Nigeria Sez Investment Company Limited and not Nigeria Special Economic Zone Company listed the documents presented by the Minister .
“Ownership of the company as clearly stated in the document obtained from CAC on the 26th of last month designated as Directors are Dr Bakari Wadinga , Mr Olufemi Edun and Ms Oluwadara Owoyemi .
” The document clearly States that the company is a private company and that liability of the members are limited by share which as also shown, gives federal government 25% and 75% to the private individuals ” he said .
Though the embattled minister made spirited attempts to convince the chairman and members of the committee that the initiative was driven by the federal government but they all declared that the process of putting it up “is misnomer and nothing but financial ambush to the Nigeria “.
They consequently directed the Minister to forward detailed written explanation on how the company got into appropriation list , its management staff, list of its staff strength and statement of account before thinking of consideration of 2019 budget proposals .
