Multi million dollars Campaign Fund Scandal Rocks Buhari Campaign Organisation

*Amaechi,Israali Firm in
 Contract Scam


Few days to the Nigerian elections,African Transparency International has raised alarm over a $195 million campaign fund scam against Buhari campaign organisation ,fingering Transportation Minister ,Rotimi Amaechi and an Israeli security firm.

 The group at a press briefing in Abuja alleged that the presidential campaign of the All Progressive Congress is been bankrolled by an Israeli company with a contract interest with the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Transportation.

Addressing a select group of journalists in Abuja,the Operation Director of the group,Demba Abdulahi disclosed that  HSLI Systems and Technology Limited had a $195 security waterway contract with the Nigerian government until it was terminated last year by the Federal Government.

The group alleged that prior to the termination of the contract,the company had been paid $50 million which was never refunded,submitting that the said payment is allegedly being diverted to find the President's campaign.

On Monday, October 30th, 2017, Nigeria's Federal Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi stunned his audience at an event to mark World Maritime Day, as he unveiled an extensive deal at an estimated value of $195 million dollars with an Israeli company, in which he did not name (later it was revealed that the company's name is HSLI Systems and Technology Ltd.).

Amaechi revealed that as a result of the deal, the unnamed company will gain complete control over Nigeria's waterways for a period of three years. Meanwhile, the Israeli company will provide training services to the Nigerian national security forces, and at the end of the three years contract, the Nigerians will regain full control of the waterways from the unnamed company.

The agreement also consists of a supply of three helicopters, three aircraft, three big battle-ready ships, 12 vessels, and 20 amphibious cars to secure Nigerian waters.
Minister Amaechi explained that the project would obviate the necessity for safekeeping and escort of ships and vessels crossing Nigeria’s waterways. It should be taken into consideration that Minister Amaechi is a partner and a confidant of the president, assisting him in obtaining the president's approval for the deal. The contract was finally approved and signed by the Federal Executive Council on October 2017.

The statement given by Amaechi at the International World Maritime Day event had soon faced strong resentment from a long list of organizations and a wave of opposition that reached the door of the House of Representatives. This led the House of Representatives to begin investigating the matter. Many clauses of the agreement remain vague, including elementary information such as the identity of the implementing company (HLSI), the exact equipment to be supplied, and how the Navy, which is responsible securing Nigeria’s waterways in general, is aware of the agreement’s full implications.

In May 2018, public pressure had obligated President Buhari to announce the complete annulment of the deal, and the initiation of an investigation led by the NSA and the DIA. The fate of the $50 Million Dollars paid to HLSI as advance payment remains unknown.

The scandalous deal did not stop president Buhari from appointing Minister Amaechi as his re-election campaign’s Director General. Amaechi was also the Director General of the Buhari-Osinbajo Presidential Campaign Committee between 2014 and 2015. The appointment immediately raised suspicion that the payment in advance given to HLSI was truly intended to finance Buhari’s 2019 election campaign.Suspicions intensified as soon as the president announced he will not use governmental funds for his re-election campaign  at the closure of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on January 2019.

The company behind the scandalous deal was identified as HSLI Systems and Technology Ltd., owned by Israeli-based Mitrelli Group and part of Mitrelli’s security branch. Until 2012 Mitrelli was known as the LR Group, a company established in 1985 by three Israeli Air Force pilots. The three became billionaires due to a lengthy list of deals in Angola and other countries around the world. The LR group is shrouded in mystery and its work ethics have frequently raised question marks.

In 2012, the LR Group partners drifted apart and the business was divided among them.  One of LR's original founder, Eytan Stibbe (50%) and the former manager of LR operations in Angola Haim Taib (50%) founded Mitrelli Group. Taib is Mitrelli's General Manager.

Minister Amaechi had contracted Israeli company LR Group during his tenure as the governor of Nigerian Rivers state. On March 2012, Governor Amaechi and the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA) initiated a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the LR Group (today they are called Mitrelli) to develop a $140 million dollars 3000-hectare farm settlement in Etche.
 
On December 2014, the All Progressives Congress, (abbreviated as APC), has named Governor Amaechi as the Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Organization, an organization responsible for President Buhari’s 2015 presidential election. 

After the 2015 presidential elections accusations were made against Amaechi claiming that funds originally designated to the LR Group Etche farm deal were used to fund President Buhari’s elections campaign.

MITERELLI $195 MILLION WATERWAYS SECURITY DEAL

The waterways security deal led by Minister Amaechi and approved by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) was signed off by the Federal Executive Council on December 2017  , after receiving approval from the President.

The deal’s contractor, HLSI Security Systems and Technologies  , was supposed to be paid $195 Million Dollars (about 60 Billion Nigerian Naira) to procure security equipment and train Nigerian security personnel to tackle criminalities on the national waterways.   The Guardian later reported that the contract consisted of three helicopters, three aircraft, three big battle-ready ships, 12 vessels, and 20 amphibious cars to secure Nigerian waters. 

The Federal Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who disclosed the deal at an event to mark World Maritime Day in Lagos, did not reveal the name of the Israeli firm involved in the deal.   The contract was planned to commence in December 2018 and run for three cosecutive years.

During this period of time the Israeli firm will train and instruct the Nigerian security forces personnel. After the expiration of the contract the operation will be handed over to the Nigerian forces.   Minister Amaechi had explained that the project would obviate the need for security and escort of ships, cruisers and vessels crossing Nigeria’s waterways and added that the Israelis have assured him that after the training of the security operatives, harassment and attacks on Nigeria’s waterways will cease and that the firm will be held accountable if such attacks will persist, after the Nigerian personnel training will take place.   In October 2017 Amaechi said that the Israeli company was “yet to launch because they are still buying the equipment”.

Shortly after the contract was granted, critics began raising questions regarding the Nigerian administration, hiring a foreign firm to secure Nigerian waterways, claiming it could undermine Nigeria’s sovereignty and national security.
Minister Amaechi accused some governmental officials, and “people making money from water” of sabotaging the government’s effort in restoring peace to Nigerian national waters.

The President approved a contract of $195 million dollars and there are people in the system sabotaging that contract. The contract is to that restore security in the nation’s water.” 
Some civil society organizations (abbreviated as CSOs) have petitioned the speaker of the House of Representatives regarding the deal. The petition, signed by ten CSOs and dated November 14, 2017, was presented to the House of Representatives. It was entitled the ‘Petition on the Ceding of Nigerian Coastal Waterways to HLSI Security Firms and Technologies and Commercialization of the Nigerian Navy to Shorefac Consortium Ltd. (Shorefac Consortium will be technically dedicated to the maintenance of Naval vessels while also acting as a commercial partner to the Navy). They claimed that this is an aberration to Nigeria’s sovereignty to national security’. They appealed to the speaker of the House of Representatives to investigate the $195 million contract, particularly the procurement process leading to the selection of the HSLI company.

On December 8, 2017, the Nigerian House of Representatives had demanded a halt to a contract. The Federal Government Chairman, Committee of the House Committee on Public Petitions, Mr. Uzoma Abonta (PDP, Abia) made the official demand. The lawmaker said the public hearing will enable the House of Representatives to have an overview of the matter and the benefits Nigeria would gain from this deal. According to him, relevant invitations have been sent to different parties including the Navy, Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Federal Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Defense, and other stakeholders to appear before the committee.  Amaechi, and the Director General of NIMASA, Mr. Dakuku Peterside, were present at the hearing. The hearing could not go ahead as planned due to the fact that the Nigerian Navy, who’s statutory duties centered on securing Nigerian waterways, was not originally invited.

The Committee discovered that the Navy had not received an invitation and was not prepared to respond to questions as the deal was hurriedly brokered by the minister without the involvement of the Nigerian Navy. There had been indications that the Nigerian Navy was deeply insulted for being sidelined and made his statutory duties look irrelevant as far as the surreptitious security deal is concerned.

On March 2018, the House Committee on Public Petitions, which investigated the scandalous contract, revealed that the contract would violate appropriation laws because it was not based on the actual budget and recommended outright termination. The lawmakers said that HLSI was not a registered company in Israel and that Amaechi failed to supply them with documents even after they have conducted eight different hearings on the matter.

On January 2018, a Don at the Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology in Lagos and the leadership of the Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) have mutually disagreed over the viability of the signed $195 million dollars maritime security contract between the Nigerian government and the Israeli firm HLSI Security Firms and Technology Inc.
the President of SOAN, Engr. Greg Ogbeifun stated that the maritime security contract signed with HSLI goes against the nation's local content policy.

According to Ogbeifun, “It is very dicey for a nation to mortgage her sovereignty, particularly in the area of security, to a foreign nation…the Navy, we all know, is in charge of policing our waters. So, if the Navy had been the one bringing in the Israeli partner, then our local content policy would have been respected… But the Navy didn’t bring in the foreign partner, to me the entire process is faulty.”

On January 11, 2018 the House of Representatives criticized the management of Nigeria’s Maritime and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for awarding the contract to an Israeli firm, insisting that the project is a breach of the country’s internal security. The House of Representatives noted that the contract was not only a security breach but also defies the local content law, which promulgates patronizing of Nigerian goods and services.

On January 31, 2018, a session convened at the National Assembly in Abuja investigating the deal was stalled after lawmakers could not lay their hands on the contract papers. The House of Representatives directed Amaechi and other stakeholders to produce the documents on the $195million waterways security contract within 72 hours. Expressing frustration of the committee, Nkem-Abonta stated, “We have been demanding these documents and we have received no responses. This is about the 8th hearing on this issue. If the contractual documents and agreements cannot be produced within the next 72 hours, we will be forced to close this matter and make our recommendations to the House.”

DEAL TERMINATION, MAY 2018

In May 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari had terminated the $195 million ‘Israeli’ security contract.

Mr. Amaechi had long been considered as one of President Buhari’s biggest loyalists in his cabinet, and is publicly considered crucial to the president’s re-election efforts. “The minister carried us along in the contract,” a senior naval officer told PREMIUM TIMES under anonymity. “He was able to get the president to sign the contract, but it seemed the president felt deceived after learning that so many things were wrong with it.”

In a memo dispatched written by the Chief of Staff to the president, Abba Kyari, he is directing the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to terminate the contract.

Meanwhile, the president had also ordered the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) to investigate how the contractor obtained security clearance for the job without an end-user certificate.

The president had also ordered that the contractor would to supply items equivalent to the $50 Million Dollars upfront payment given by the Nigerians to HSLI.   It was not clear whether it will be possible for Nigeria to recover any amount of money of the advanced payment given to HSLi.