WARRI—INVESTORS in the maritime sector, under the auspices of NPA Warri Port Stakeholders’ Forum, have faulted the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, over its defence of the purported concession of NPA Warri Old Port Terminal ‘B’, insisting that neither the bureau nor National Council on Privatization, NCP, had the constitutional right to do so under the Infrastructure Concession Regulation Commission, ICRC, Act of 2005.

According to the stakeholders, all projects handled by BPE in 2006 in line with the ICRC Act have been handed over to ICRC, hence the BPE report, which claimed that Terminal ‘B’ of the 24 terminals concessioned by it in 2006 to Associated Marine Services, AMS, and later relocated to Terminal ‘A’ New Port, Warri, showed that BPE only contradicted itself and implies that Terminal ‘B’, therefore, remains not allotted.”

In a fresh petition addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan, entitled Re: Illegal Concession of NPA Warri Old Port Terminal ‘B’ by BPE— A Clarification of the Issues, the forum accused officials of NCP and BPE of resorting “to concocting lies to deceive unsuspecting Nigerians to facilitate their acts of impunity” aimed at patronizing their cronies and to “avoid the scrutiny of ICRC Governing Board, which is made up of very eminent Nigerians of proven integrity.”

The petition, which was signed by Messrs Emiko Oghomienor, Tommy Gbugbuda, Oritsema Olley and Jonathan Orugbor, wondered while BPE, which “is yet to fully privatize all the Federal Government’s assets marked for privatization” under its purview would dabble “into the functions of another agency which it has been relieved of by law.”

The stakeholders, who called on President Jonathan to institute a process for BPE, also copied the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, among other ministries, departments and agencies.