Taye Obateru, Omawumi Tuoyo and Mabas Akil
6 November 2008
The Commission of Inquiry investigating contract awards by the Plateau State Government between 1999 and 2007 has heard that the state transport company, Plateau Express Services Limited incurred a loss of over nine million naira on some Marcopolo executive buses bought by the company in 2005.
Testifying before the commission, the General Manager, Mr. Eric Yakubu said although the buses generated over N48 million within the period, the high cost of keeping them on the road because of their bad condition and having to source funds to service the N76 million taken made the income insignificant.
He said the company under his predecessor paid a total of N25.6 million from the loan out of which over N9.2 million was sourced outside the company.
Mr. Yakubu also read a portion of the white paper submitted by an administrative panel set up by the Jonah Jang Administration on the running of the company which unearthed what was referred to as "raw deals" in the disposal of 19 vehicles belonging to the company.
According to the white paper, the vehicles were sold as scrap to an untraceable community bank for N2.1 million and later bought back from it at N2.6 million.
The report accused some principal officers of the company of having bought some of the vehicles at give away prices some as low as N25,000 and resold them to the company at higher prices.
Chairman of the commission, Justice Onaolapo Onalaja fixed further hearing in the matter for November 26 when those mentioned are expected to appear to defend themselves. Hearing of other matters continues.
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