Amaechi in Verbal Showdown With Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun As China Trip Got Disrupted

 

After the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi engaged Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun in a verbal showdown after he stopped two directors in his ministry and that of the Ministry of Finance from departing for China last week on their originally scheduled flight, causing a disruption in the first meeting slated for the Nigerian delegation and the China Exim Bank in Beijing, more facts have emerged as to the cause of the quarrel.

 

The Nation reports that Amaechi and his team were about to depart for China from Abuja onboard Emirates Airline, when he discovered that the flight tickets of the directors from his ministry had been paid for by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), one of the interested contractors in the railway and airport rehabilitation projects.

 

Uncomfortable with the notion, the minister was said to have disapproved and asked his directors to disembark from the plane, insisting that they should not go on the trip on the bill of a contractor, who was an interested party in the business that was billed for discussions with the China Exim Bank.

 

“The minister was livid and could not comprehend why he would be flown on an official trip by an interested contractor. So the minister gave the order immediately for everyone to disembark from that flight,” one ministry source revealed.

 

It was also gathered that Amaechi on sighting two other directors from the Ministry of Finance on the plane and after making enquiries, discovered that the same contractor had paid for their trip too.

 

Angry over the fact that top civil servants were being induced by a contractor, Amaechi immediately asked the directors from the finance ministry to disembark also.

 

But in taking the decision, since the Ministry of Finance was not under his supervision, Amaechi was said to have called Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to seek his endorsement to prevent the finance directors from proceeding on the trip on sponsored tickets.

 

The vice-president was said to have given him the go ahead, reinforcing Amaechi’s position that nobody must go on the bill of any contractor, The Nation reveals.

 

The infuriated Minister asked his ministry to settle the cost, including those of the finance directors which would be later reimbursed to the ministry later. However, the matter didn't die there as Amaechi on getting to China discovered that the same company had made provisions for their hotel reservations. He again, refused to be bought and settled the bills from his ministry's pocket.

 

But angry Adeosu oblivious of details surrounding the situation had chided Amechi for delaying his directors in Beijing.

 

She however calmed down when she was fed the right information of all that transpired, more so given the fact that he had the express permission of the vice-president to do so.