The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, on Tuesday, revealed why he pleaded with the National Assembly not to probe the Chinese loan.
There have been reactions from every corner over the clause in the agreement signed by the Federal Ministry of Finance on behalf of Nigeria and Chinese Bank on September 5, 2018.
Part of the agreement said that: “The borrower hereby irrevocably provides waives any immunity on the grounds of sovereign or otherwise for itself or its property in connection with any arbitration pursuit to Article 85 thereof with the enforcement of any arbitral award pursuit thereto except for the military asset and diplomatic asset.”
The former Governor of Rivers State while speaking on Channel TV Politics Today noted that he asked the lawmakers not to probe the loan in order not to scare the lender.
He further stated that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government is about to apply for about $3billion loan from China to execute the rail from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri.
“The reason why I said that is because we have already applied for $5.3billion to execute the rail from Ibadan to Kano.”
“We are about applying for about $3billion to execute the rail from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri.”
“Don’t forget the National Assembly approved that loan. It is unconstitutional and impeachable if you take a loan without the approval of the National Assembly,” he said.
He questioned the lawmakers for approving the loan and questioning the same loan and the terms of the loan having looked at it before.
“If I am the lender, I will be worried. If they get worried, they will say ‘No, we will not approve the remaining loans you have applied for,” he said.
source https://www.naijanews.com/2020/08/05/were-about-applying-for-another-3b-loan-from-china-amaechi/
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