TREAN, another beneficiary, said it requested TIB to supply it 100 Toyota and Ashley Leyland buses but was given only 10 Toyota buses and 32 Hyundai and Innoson buses, all at the cost of N370.7 million.

The National President of the association, Musa Shehu, told the icirnigeria.org that most of the Hyundai and Innoson buses broke down within the first month because of the rigour of travelling on bad roads, while the others could not last a year, thereby making it impossible to repay the loan.

Mr. Shehu gave our reporter copies of the letters his association wrote TIB to supply them the remaining 58 vehicles and make sure they were Toyota or Ashley Leyland buses so that they could off-set the loan on the bad vehicles with money from the good ones. He said although TIB promised to give them the vehicles the bank never kept the promise.

On May 24, 2012, RTEAN wrote to TIB, complaining that some of the buses were “faulty and draining our pocket.” The association said many of the vehicles they got developed faults within days or weeks after they were delivered.

“Most of the vehicles giving us severe problem are Innoson and Hyundai models,” it said in the letter, asking that the buses be replaced.

In another letter dated July 19, 2012, the association complained that it could not continue to meets its repayment obligation under the agreement as some of the buses given to its members were breaking down daily.

“These buses can hardly be used for 3 days without developing some sort of fault or the other. There is no week that passes by without these buses going to a mechanic’s workshop,” the association wrote.

“We hereby appeal that these Innoson buses should be retracted by you and in exchange, release to us Hummer buses in order for us to effectively run our commercial businesses…”

Both NURTW and RTEAN said those who got the Toyota buses, who are few, met their contractual obligations because the buses are still on the road. “But those who got Hyundai and Innoson cannot pay back because the vehicles have been parked due to lack of spare parts. While the former has paid only N350 million till date, the later has paid back less than N30 million,” Mr. Shehu stated.

But investigations also show that the transporters were also wont to complain about just any vehicle given to then, even Toyota buses. For instance, in a letter written to TIB by RTEAN in September, 2012, the association also complained about a Toyota Coaster bus which it said developed faults three months after it was supplied.

“This particular vehicle (a Toyota Coaster bus), which has not been on the road for more than three months, has been associated with all sorts of problems which include perpetual break down, faulty internal parts of the vehicle and high cost of maintenance.”

Documents made available indicate that the BPP in January 2012 issued a Certificate of No Objection to TIB’s request to engage nine vehicle providers under the scheme.

The vehicle providers include Globe Motors and IVM Innoson, among others. The document also showed that the selection of vehicle providers was based on their ability to deliver high capacity buses within a very short time, and not to provide vehicles with high durability.

The TIB and the BPP were more concerned with helping government to provide transport palliative to cushion effect of fuel subsidy removal at the time, and not making the loan scheme efficient.

There are also allegations that TIB received and supplied sub-standard vehicles because officials of the bank received gratifications from the vehicle providers. We are unable to independently verify that claim and unable to accuse anyone of receiving gratifications at this time.

Some of the beneficiaries told our reporter that TIB never discussed with them the brand of vehicles they would be given, but only specified that they would be high capacity buses. Moreover, they alleged, TIB ignored their request for vehicles of their choice and instead decided on its own to impose the vehicles on them.

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