Chuks Okocha
28 August 2008
Abuja — Action Congress (AC) has decried the Federal Government's signing of a fresh power deal with Siemens, a German company, saying it negates government's own decision on the firm, following its involvement in a bribery scandal.
Siemens was one of the companies indicted by the House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel and just last week, government awarded fresh contracts to the German firm.
Also, Federal Executive Council in December 2007, barred Siemens from bidding for any fresh contract in the country, pending conclusion of investigations into its 10-million-euro bribery of Nigerian officials.
According to AC, in a statement signed by its National Publciity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party recalled that in the aftermath of the bribery-for-contract scandal, said to have involved four former Communications ministers among other top government officials, President Umaru Yar'Adua had directed all relevant security agencies to probe the scandal.
"In fact, Yar'Adua said there would be no sacred cow or cover up for anybody found culpable of breaching the law. To the best of our knowledge, the outcome of the probe, if at all it has been concluded, has not been made public. There is, therefore, no evidence that Siemens or any of those involved had been exonerated. We are, therefore, baffled that the Federal Government has eaten its own words that there will be no cover up or sacred cow.
"Indeed, the Yar'Adua administration, by hurrying to sign a fresh deal with Siemens when the company has not been cleared of the bribery charges against it, has turned the German engineering firm into a sacred cow, undermined his own administration's anti-corruption battle and made Nigeria a laughing stock," it said.
"The action has also shown that government does not mean what it says, which is a big blow to its credibility in the eyes of the citizens and non-citizens alike," AC said.
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