The House of Representatives joint Committees on Airforce and Justice have embarked on an oversight function to carry out on the spot assessment on the alleged excessive use of force by the Nigerian Airforce Property against Blue Boulevard Nigeria Limited, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
This is coming months after the House had in a petition by Blue Boulevard promised to wade into the matter to see that issues are resolved amicably by parties involved.
The Company is accusing the Nigerian Airforce Property of using excessive force and military might against it and reneging in a contractual agreement they had to build a shopping mall at the Mami Market in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The tour had the presence of both parties with the Committee demanding for the bid of quantities, engineering drawings and joint evaluation report tendered.
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In his opening speech the leader of the delegation, Dekor Robinson (PDP, Rivers) promised to be fair and transparent in their report.
He said: “The reason why we are here is to visit the site and this is in furtherance of duties as it affects this particular investigation as it affects the House.
“Whatever we are going to do here will form part of our report to be submitted to plenary. So what we expect from you is to give us the best cooperation so that we can address this issue and have a permanent resolution to this particular problem
“Our mission here is mere fact-finding so I crave your indulgence to give us the best in terms of contributions. After the inspection, I will expect we also sit briefly to address one or two issues before we depart.
‘’The Managing Director of Blue Boulevard said 640 shops for cluster one are all sold out with occupancy rate of about 20 percent”.
But the Managing Director of NAF Property, AB Bagari (Air Vice Marshal) said the clusters do not represent completion, adding that at the point of agreement the completion of the project is the point it is tenable.
The Managing Director of Blue Boulevard Nigeria Limited, Peter Osunde noted that the ongoing project was halted following the invasion of the Military in March 2017.
He also noted that NAF Property had written to them in October 2017 to negotiate for an out of court settlement but they did not do the needful and took them on a merry go round while a N3 billion loan taken from First Bank continued to increase.
Recall that a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt had ordered men of the Nigerian Airforce to vacate the premises of Blue Boulevard limited, a multi shopping complex in Port Harcourt.
Justice Hillary Oshomah who gave the order in an application filed by Peter Osunde ( 1st Applicant, Blue Boulevard limited (2nd Applicant) against Nigerian Airforce Property Limited said the continued stay of men of the Airforce at the business premises was ultra vires and beyond her statutory responsibilities.
