The true son of Nigeria

KADUNA UPDATE: - A Statement by the members of the Kaduna State Executive Council (2015-2023) - 18th February, 2025 Re: +ICPC seeks forfeiture of N1.3b for Kaduna  Light Rail Project* - Part 2/3 7. Based on the Detailed Project Report and the Feasibility Study prepared by  Systra and GTA Engineering, we secured an in-principle approval from the Indian EXIM Bank in January 2017; a copy of which is attached as Annex 4. One of the conditions precedent to the final approval of the loan from the Indian EXIM Bank is the provision of a Sovereign Guarantee by the Federal Government of Nigeria, which we initially understood would be made available to Kaduna State. 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. 8.        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 (N890million 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 travels and other relevant expenses; for which an understanding was reached for a setoff against interest received on the deposit. 9.        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 as per attached copy, marked Annex 5. 10.  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 N13 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 N1.3billion 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 N1.3 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. 11.  Now, instead of waiting for the litigation process to run through its course and see if anyone is guilty of any crime, ICPC, goaded on by the Kaduna State Government, is seeking for the money in the Escrow Account with the CBN to be forfeited. The question is: What is the basis for the forfeiture and why is ICPC circumventing the process?