Nigerians are expressing their anxiety over the pedigree of the United Kingdom firm, Messrs MPH Rail Development Limited, which signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nigeria to implement the Port Harcourt–Enugu–Calabar–Abuja Standard Gauge Rail Line project under a public-private partnership framework.
It would be recalled that the Minister of Transportation, Senator Said Ahmed Alkali, on March 13, 2024, signed an MoU with the UK firm on behalf of the Federal Government to enable the company to carry out the design, construction, commissioning, operation and transfer of the project under the PPP arrangement.
The ministry said the MoU signing followed the approval of the Outline Business Case and the issuance of a compliance certificate by the Infrastructure, Concession, and Regulatory Commission.
The next step after obtaining the clearance, is for Messrs MPH Rail Development Limited to focus on compiling the necessary documentation for Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval to advance the project.
Internet-savvy Nigerians went to work after the announcement was made, digging into the background of the company being tipped to handle the massive project and they have subsequently been voicing their concerns online.
Most of the findings put a question mark on the ability of the UK company to deliver a project of such magnitude, on account of its lack of track records in handling a similar project.
Many saw the absence of the company on the web as a red flag fueling a suspicion that it may well be another wasteful venture for the country.
They argued that a company needed for such a task is not a greenhorn, but one with enough experience and track record to lend its expertise to the drive to develop the country’s infrastructure.
A cursory search of the Messrs MPH Rail Development Limited Company online by MicrosecondNews did not yield any owned web asset for the company.
At the time of putting this report together, all available information about the company was found on third-party web assets.
A UK government listing of businesses has six directors listed for MPH. Two of them are British, while the rest are Nigerians.
The directors include: Gbadamosi, Mudashiru Oriyomi of Magodo Shangisha, Lagos, Nigeria; Ikuforiji, Adeyemi Sabitun of G.R.A, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; Jason, Andrew of Hounslow, England; Osinowo, Dacosta Rotimi, of Peckham, London, England; Osinowo, Olubode Sayeed, of Ikotun, Lagos State, Nigeria; and Smith, David Neil of Regent Street, London, England.
Jason Andrew is one of the two directors listed to be of British nationality, the other person being David Neil.
Nigerians have been able to dig out old newspaper reports showing that this same Jason Andrew has been featuring in the political landscape of the country in the last decade at the very least.
A June 30, 2015 publication of the Nigerian Tribune, reporting the inauguration of an 11-member Technical Committee to boost and manage Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for Akwa Ibom State, by the then Governor of the state, Udom Emmanuel, listed Jason Andrew as one of the members alongside such names as Mr. Gabriel Ukpeh (Chairman) Offong Ambah, Elijah Akpan, Ini Urua, Akan Udofia, and Udeme Ufot.
There are also digital footprints of Jason Andrew online as the promoter of a large-scale farming business known as Ubium Integrated Farms (UK) LTD with a rice farm in Akwa Ibom.
Scrutiny of Ubium Integrated Farms (UK) LTD’s publicly available records show that it metamorphosed from a company that used to be known as Mordecai JB Limited on August 1, 2019.
Mordecai JB Limited was registered with Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission with its correspondence address listed as Princess Estate, Durumi, Abuja in 2017. It is currently listed as inactive.
Interestingly, records also show that the promoters of Mordecai JB Limited approached the authorities in the UK to rename the company as MPH Rail Development Limited on the 16th of February, 2021.
Additionally, a tax expert, Kayode Okunola, probed into the financial status of MPH and published his findings. According to him, the total worth of the company is £100 (100 British Pounds) for the years 2021 and 2022.
Many Nigerians are worried that the company’s publicly available does not give enough confidence that it will efficiently deliver the tasks the Ministry of Transportation is saddling it with.
Some activists have consequently called on the president to revisit the issue before Nigeria finds herself in another P&ID saga.
See a few reactions below:
