Following Saharareporters expose on RELTEL's ownership INEC says it has awarded the contract to "British Firms".
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) earlier today announced that the contract for the transmission of the April 2007 election results had been awarded to two "British Firms" named Gilat and WITNESS, however Saharareporters has found out that the companies were not owned by the British or based in the United Kingdom. GILAT is a wholly Israeli -owned company with its corporate headquarters in Petal Tikva, Israel. While Witness Systems is an American -based company based in the state of Georgia (US).
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A cursory look at the management of GILAT showed that the firm is run by Erez Antebi (an Isreali) who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GILAT, other top management personnel of GILAT are all Israelis. Another curious dimension to the so-called INEC contract to GILAT is that such deals worth millions of dollars is no where to be found on GILAT's website (www.gilat.com) the last announcement of any contractual obligation to any Nigerian based company was issued on March 20, 2007 by GILAT in which it stated on its website that: DCC, Nigeria, extends network capabilities with Gilat’s SkyEdge satellite network. Before the contract with DCC, Nigeria GILAT had worked with Hyperia, another internet company to supply ISP solutions.
Saharareporters had earlier reported that INEC issued the contract, worth N4.5 billion to RELTEL Communications LTD. a struggling communication firm with offices in Lagos, RELTEL is partly is owned by Chief Annie Okonkwo and Mr. Emmanuel Andy Uba both PDP Senatorial and Gubernatorial candidates in the upcoming April 2007 elections.
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