Contractor abandons N2.2bn power project
Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel expressed shock on Thursday when they arrived at the site of a N2.2bn 132KV transmission station in Awka, Anambra State and found the place desolate.
Mr Ndudi Elumelu
The committee members who were in the state in continuation of their tour of power plants in the South-East, were told by some women cutting overgrown grass near the site that they had not seen officials of the companies that won the contract for months.
The contract which was to have been completed last December was awarded to News Engineering Company and Ekvalent Consultants in 2006.
About N1.6bn is believed to have been paid to the firms on June 14, 2006 under the controversial National Integrated Power Project.
At another sub-station site in Ihiala, the committee members could not locate the site of the project awarded also to NEC.
The members were further amazed that officials of the NIPP and Power Holding Company of Nigeria, who were part of their entourage, could not help matters.
Before the committee members headed for Delta State, one of the contractors handling the power projects in the South-East, RENACS Engineering, said it was ready to refund the 25 per cent advance payment it received from the Federal Government with interest.
A director of the company, Mr. Nkem Okeke, who responded to questions from the members, said that the company had only spent N46m out of the N675m advance payment.
Okeke said that out of the N46m, three Pajero Jeeps were bought for officials of the PHCN as project vehicles.
He added that RENACS provided residential quarters for the officials at N240,000 per annum,
Okeke whose company is handling the 330/132KV and 132/33KV sub-stations at New Nsukka also said that work on the projects had only attained 18. 99 per cent level.
He attributed the development to delay in the procurement of materials.
The committee Chairman, Mr. Ndudi Elumelu, wondered why the PHCN made advance payment for a contract whose engineering designs had not been approved.
“You know our pain is not against RENACS but against a government agency which approved and issued payment for a contract whose design is unknown,” he said.
Earlier on Thursday, the committee members expressed shock when they were told a contractor handling the 330KV Ugwuagi sub-station rushed to the site one week to their visit to Enugu.
They were told that the contractor, ENERGO Engineering Nigeria Limited, erected 15 towers at the site of the sub-station and brought in three expatriates from Yugoslavia before the arrival of the House Committee members.
The committee also learnt that the company hurriedly bought less than 100 boots and helmets for workers, who complained of poor treatment.
The committee Chairman, Elumelu, said what was on ground did not correspond with the testimonies at the public hearing on the matter in Abuja.
Elumelu said out of N19.4bn meant for the project, N13.2bn had been released to the firm in which former Head of State Abdulsalami Abubakar is said to be chairman of the board.
He said, “You can see that whatever they are saying concerning the level of work here is not true.
“What you are seeing here is behind the completion date for the contract; they are working behind schedule.”
The committee also visited a contract site in New Haven being executed by Chrome Nigeria Company, owned by Chief Emeka Ofor, where N5.6bn was released out of the N8.8bn contract sum.
Members observed that there was nothing on ground to justify the payment.
In Asaba, Delta State, the committee members inspected the 2 X 7.5 MVA 33/11 KVA injection sub-station allegedly contracted out to a brother in-law of a former minister of Power and Steel.
No official of the handling firm was on site.
But the Project Officer, Mr. Dumebi Ezeazi, attributed the delay in the project completion to a legal tussle over a parcel of land near the sub-station.
In Abuja, a lawyer to M.Schneider GmbH, Austria, said the company was prepared to testify before the Elumelu-led panel on its involvement in the power projects if invited.
The lawyer, Mr. Wemimo Ogunde, however, denied allegation that the company failed to execute projects for which it allegedly collected a huge sum of money.
He told journalists in Abuja on Thursday that the only contract the company won was revoked without any money paid to it as mobilisation.
Ogunde therefore urged the committee to invite both Prince Albert Awofisayo and M.Schneider to explain details of the contract.
He said that the invitation was necessary to correct the erroneous impression already created in the minds of the people that M.Schneider GmbH, Austria was involved in any scandal.
The lawyer said the contract hithertho awarded to the Austrian firm was revoked when a problem broke out between it (Austrian firm) and its Nigerian partner, M.Schneider Energy Nigeria Limited.
Narrating events that forced the Austrian company out of the contract, Ogunde said that at the board of directors’ meeting held on July 12, 2006 in Abuja, it was resolved that the board of directors should be reconstituted.
He stated that at an extra ordinary meeting of the company on July 7, 2006, the chairman informed the meeting that the technical partners, M.Schneider GbmH Austria had refused to import capital into the country for the purpose of investment in the newly incorporated M.Schneider Energy Nigeria .
He said that the meeting ratified the disengagement of M.Schneider GmbH & Co from the company in Nigeria and that a new board was constituted.
Meanwhile, the Ijaw Youth Council has called for the trial of former President Olusegun Obasanjo for his role in the power sector controversy.
The President of the IYC, Dr Chris Ekiyor, said it was unthinkable that Obasanjo was still walking free in spite of the scandal in the power sector.
Ekiyor, who fielded questions from journalists in Benin on Thursday, wondered why Obasanjo, who arranged the removal of a former Governor of Bayelsa, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, for allegedly misappropriating $1m should be a free man when his administration sank $16bn into an epileptic power sector.
Ekiyor also condemned the trial of the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Mr. Henry Okah.
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