Okwe Obi, Abuja
Nine Civil Society Organisations under the auspices of Empowerment for Unemployed Youths Initiative (EUYI), yesterday, called on the National Assembly to revisit and probe the security and control of Nigeria’s coastal waterways contract valued at $195 million and awarded to HLSI security systems in 2017.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, President of EUYI, Solomon Adodo, said, the contract which was reversed by President Muhammadu Buhari was smuggled into the 2018 and 2019 national budget.
More over, he claimed that the said contract had grave national security implication owing to the ceding of the control of the country’s waterways to a foreign firm “which is a gross violation of our status as a sovereign Nation and further contravenes the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, Chapter 1V, Part III, Section 217, sub section 1&2.”
According to him, “We therefore use this medium to cry out to the National Assembly to come to the rescue of Nigeria and Nigerians again.
“This massive fraud and attempt to surreptitiously hijack national security must not be allowed to stand. In the same vein, we herein use this medium to call on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to rise and decisively deal with all those culpable of flouting the status quo pertaining the reversal of the said contract.
“We urge the National Assembly which has shown to be the bastion of hope to immediately call the Minister of Transportation to order and put the interest and security of Nigeria first and not to jeopardize or expose our nation to further security and economic dangers.
“The desperation to go ahead with this contract despite its grave implications of economic sabotage and national security compromise raises very strong questions.”