Posted by From GODWIN TSA Abuja on
An Abuja Federal High Court has summoned the Minister of Aviation, Mr. Hassan Yhat and the authorities of Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), to appear before it on Friday, over the controversy surrounding the purchase of two helicopters for the aviation college in Jos.
An Abuja Federal High Court has summoned the Minister of Aviation, Mr. Hassan Yhat and the authorities of Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), to appear before it on Friday, over the controversy surrounding the purchase of two helicopters for the aviation college in Jos.
The court action is a fall out of an action instituted by an Abuja-based firm, Obyke Systems Consult Limited which is pressing for the suspension of the process leading to the award of the contract for the purchase of the helicopters.
The plaintiff had dragged the Aviation College, the secretary to the College Tenders Board and the Federal Government to court, over the award of the contract.
The presiding judge, Justice Mohammed Umar, had earlier turned down the request by the applicant for an exparte order stopping the award of the contract.
Instead, it was the order of the court directing the company to serve all the court processes in the case including originating summons on all the defendants that was issued by the court.
Obyke Systems Consult Limited had in its originating summons prayed the court to stop the college from holding a fresh tender for the procurement of the helicopters pending the determination of its motion on notice before the court.
The suit which was filed by counsel to the company, Mr Max Nduka Ozoaka, is accompanied by a 40-page affidavit, adducing reasons why the court action became necessary.
According to the Chairman/Managing Director of the company, retired Navy Captain Jerry Ogbonna, the college, had, on May 12, this year advertised in the May 12, 2008 to May 25, 2008 edition of the Federal Tenders Journals for the supply of two helicopters and training.
Captain Ogbonna averred that interested contractors including his firm indicated interest and submitted their pre-qualification documents accordingly.
It was also his depositions that out of the several number of companies that indicated interest, only 11 companies were pre-qualified in the technical component of the bid process.
According to him, his firm eventually collected the tender documents alongside others, submitted same in accordance with the conditions attached including submission of a bank guarantee representing two percent of his tendered sum totalling N431million .
He told the court that his firm had already paid the issuing bank, Bank PHB the sum of N150,000 in the bid that was opened as scheduled on August 25, 2008 'in a fair, just, reasonable and competitive manner .
He said that all the pre-qualified cum responsive contractors were present and or represented at the opening of the bid.
He said his bid out-performed the bids of all the other pre-qualified and responsive contractors in all the component of the bidding process.
'That according to global cum Nigeria's best practices, it is the lowest evaluated tender cost usually referred to as the best responsive bidder that should be adjudged the right winner,' he said.
He said rather than award the contract to his firm, he said he was however surprised that having realized that he had emerged the right winner of the contract, he said the Aviation College together with its Secretary teamed up against him and wrote him a letter dated September 2, 2008 purportedly inviting him to re-tender for the project he had already won.
The Aviation College had explained that it was calling for a fresh tender 'due to the omission in inviting all the pre-qualified companies'
He alleged that the call for a fresh tender was done in a manner devoid of cogent reasons and shrouded in secrecy, fraud, corruption and absence of transparency.