By Chinelo Obogo
SIFAX Group of Companies Limited, one of the bidders for the concession of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), has asked the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to disqualify Tav Airports Holding Company and GMR Airport Limited, claiming that both firms are owned by the same company, Airport De Paris (ADP) but submitted separate bids for MMIA and were shortlisted for the next phase of the concession.
In its submission, SIFAX claimed 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.The plaintiff sued the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of Nigeria, the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Minister of Aviation, NAHCO Aviance Plc, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission( ICRC), Tav Airports Holding and GMR Airport as the 1st to 7th defendants. FG announces bidders for three of four international Airports
The plaintiff said sometime in August 2021, the Federal Government, through the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, decided to concession Murtala Muhammed International Airport and Cargo Terminals via a Public Private Partnership, PPP, arrangement on a Build/Rehabilitate Operate and Transfer (B/ROT) basis.
The plaintiff claimed that that two consortiums owned by ADP Airport De Paris submitted an expression of interest thus violating the documented strict rules of engagement in the bidding process.
The case will be determined by Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa but no fixed date has been announced yet.
The Federal Government through Sirika had announced the emergence of preferred and reserve bidders for three airport and cargo terminals as approved for concession after the Request for Proposals, RFP, phase of the Nigeria Airports Concession Programme, NACP.
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 (3) out of four (4) Airports and Cargo Terminals as approved for concession under the programme.
Announcing, “The preferred bidder for the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, is Corporation America Airports Consortium. ENL Consortium has also been selected as the reserve bidder for NAIA.”He further disclosed that “The preferred bidder for Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, is TAV/NAHCO/PROJECT PLANET LIMITED(PPL) Consortium. Sifax/Changi Consortium has also been selected as the reserve bidder for MMIA.
But in a letter dated No-vember 3, 2021 and addressed to Sirika, the counsel to SIFAX, Femi Falana (SAN), advised the Minister to disqualify three firms, TAV Consor-tium, GMR Consortium and ADP for vi-olating the requests for qual-ification (RFO) process.
According to him, 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 con-sortium led by TAV Airport Holding, ADP owns 49 per-cent of its shares, while the second submission done by GMR Airports Limited, ADP also owns 46 percent of the company’s shares. Falana said that contrary to the belief that both TAV and GMR were separate en-tities, a search on the inter-net by the law firm revealed that ADP owns 46 percent of GMR and 49 percent of TAV.