A band of government cronies and old contractors were behind the failed delivery of electoral materials, NEXT can exclusively reveal.
The bidding process for the ballot papers, which was shrouded in secrecy, has been linked with Nigerians who have associates and even family relations within the Federal Government and the Independent National Electoral commission, a source disclosed. While recent reports unfolded the names and companies of the contractors, it has become more evident that most of the contractors may have been doing business with the Independent National Electoral Commission for a long time.
Sanni Musa, the representative of Sanfrano, a German/Polish company which handled the contract for the ballot papers is an in-law to a former INEC secretary. Sanfrano had reportedly gone to China to print the papers but had failed to deliver on time for the April 2 elections. Not much could be gathered about this company as it had no online presence but it was revealed that their failure was the biggest reason for the postponement of the elections.
Mr. Musa who is from Niger State, is a former member of the defunct United Nigeria Congress Party and has been doing business with INEC since its inception in 1998. He is said to be a very close ally of former President Ibrahim Babangida and had married the daughter of the then INEC secretary. Little wonder the INEC chairman dropped other qualified companies and picked Sanfrano with a man he thought could deliver, since he was an old hand on these kinds of issues.
Hashim Dikko representing Tip3 a Spanish company hails from Adamawa state and is said to have been doing business with government since President Obasanjo’s regime. According to sources, he was the one who handled the contract on the aircraft during Obasanjo’s regime. Tip3 however does not have a strong Internet presence as its website was dormant. In spite of this, it was responsible for handling 75 million copies for the main presidential election and another 75 million copies for a potential run-off.
Suleiman Yahaya who represented VI solutions is said to have worked with the former secretary of the Petroleum Development Trust Fund (PTDF) Hussien Jalo. The VI solutions, it was learnt was merged with Avant, another Lagos company run by Sadiq Mamman, a former special adviser to the Vice President Namadi Sambo while he was governor of Kaduna state. He was also a vice-chairman of Kaduna State Football Association but his name did not make the contract list. However it was also learnt that Mr. Yahaya is fronting for a top government official.
It is not clear why all the contractors that were finally chosen to print the ballot paper are coincidentally involved with one government official or past president or the other.
A harmonisation committee led by Col. M. K Hammanga, to pick out contractors, had, in its report, recommended that the ballot papers, result sheets and other sensitive materials be printed in Germany, France and Poland. The committee also recommended that US should be excluded because of distance, while England was also rejected because of high cost of printing there. However some of the listed companies have their offices in the United Kingdom.
The Hammanga committee was reported to have subsequently shortlisted 21 companies which were eventually passed on to Mr. Jega.
It was later discovered that INEC dumped the shortlisted companies and picked up new ones. “Since then, the issues on the award of the contracts for the printing of the ballot papers, the result sheets and other sensitive election materials was shrouded in secrecy. The files relating to the contracts were always kept in the office of the INEC chairman,” the source said.
Graphic Inline (GI) is a UK based company located at Scudamore road in Leicester, with Sanni Lamido as proxy. The outfit had mistakenly produced ballot papers for the re-run elections and had to reprint new ones. The next delivery for the ballot papers are slated for April 12.
Kalamazoo is a UK-based security printing company represented by Dick Jackson, a Nigerian-Briton married to a lady from Kano. Kalamazoo currently prints bank cheques for 45 Nigeria banks. According to information displayed on their website, Kalamazoo is an international Security Printing, Cheque Printing, Visitor Management and ID Card Printing company which has been around for over one hundred years.
Aero-vote also a British Manufacturing company which specialises in security printing represented by a man identified as Yerima, were also listed as contractors for the ballot papers. Aero Vote specializes in a range of Turnkey Solutions products for elections including: Registration Kits Total Security Printing E-Election, Electronic Equipment, Voting Screens , Bespoke Solutions, Electoral Advisors and Ballot Boxes. They also specialize in printing tickets for the airline sector. The company is located in, Buckinghamshire.
However the INEC chairman has said the commission cannot give any information about the companies as yet, because it is pursuing contractual penalties against them and doing so may be imperilled by a disclosure.