* Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos
…Prays Court To Disqualify Tav Airports Holding Company, GMR Airport Limited For Beaching Section 2.2 RFQ
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SIFAX Group of Companies Limited, the parent company of Sky Power Aviation Handling Company(SAHCO) PLC, one of the companies that bidded for the concession of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), has asked a Federal High Court in Lagos to disqualify two companies; Tav Airports Holding Company and GMR Airport Limited owned by Airport De Paris (ADP) for submitting separate bids for MMIA and were subsequently shortlisted for the next phase of the concession.
Sifax, in its submission argued that this breached the “specific precept of the RFQ” (Request For Qualification), which states that no applicant is entitled to bid for any of the specific assets twice under any guise or form.
SIFAX sued the Attorney-General & Minister of Justice of Nigeria, the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Minister of Aviation, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company(NAHCo) Aviance PLC, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission( ICRC), Tav Airports Holding and GMR Airport as the 1st to 7th defendants.
According to the plaintiff sometime in August 2021, the Federal Government, through the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika decided to concession MMIA, Lagos and Cargo Terminals via a Public Private Partnership(PPP), arrangement on a Build/Rehabilitate Operate and Transfer (B/ROT) basis.
The Plaintiff further submitted that two consortiums owned by ADP Airport De Paris submitted an expression of interest thereby violating the documented strict rules of engagement in the bidding process.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the case.
The latest development is coming almost a month after the Aviation Minister announced the controversial preferred and reserved bidders for three out of the four airport and cargo terminals approved for concession after the Request for Proposals(RFP) of the phase of the Nigeria Airports Concession Programme, (NACP).
AbelNews recalled that Human Rights Lawyer and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria(SAN), Femi Falana had earlier asked the Aviation Minister, Senator Hadi Sirika to disqualify the three companies owned by ADP Airport De Paris .
The advice by Falana is contained in a letter dated November 3, 2021, addressed to the Aviation Minister, Senator Hadi Sirika.
In the letter Falana advised the Minister to disqualify three firms, TAV Consortium, GMR Consortium and ADP for violating the Requests for Qualification (RFO) process.
Falana said in the letter that two consortium owned by ADP Airport De Paris submitted expression of interest in a public notice published by the Ministry of Aviation in August 2021, but noted that the first consortium led by TAV Airport Holding, ADP owns 49 percent of its shares, while the second submission done by GMR Airports Limited, ADP also owns 46 per cent of the company’s shares.
Falana pointed out that contrary to the misleading impression that both TAV and GMR were separate entities, a search on the internet by the law firm revealed that ADP owns 46 per cent of GMR and 49 per cent of TAV.
To buttress his argument Falana cited Section 2.2 of the RFQ which states that, ‘No applicant single or a consortium can be part of more than one bid,’ while section 2.2.3 further clarified that the eligibility ‘shall apply to an applicant and/or to the parties consisting of the applicant i.e. shareholders.’
Based on the above, he warned that the failure of the Ministry of Aviation to act appropriately on the matter may lead to litigation against the Federal Government.
Recall that on October 27, Federal Government through the Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika announced the preferred and reserved bidders for the concession projects
Sirika had said that the Request for Proposals (RFP) phase of the Nigeria Airports Concession Programme (NACP), which came to a close on the 19” of September 2022 has seen the emergence of preferred and reserve bidders for three out of four airports and cargo terminals as approved for concession under the programme.
