By; PETER NOSAKHARE, Kaduna
House of Representatives on Tuesday, discovered loopholes in the $33 million paid monthly to Azura Power Company, located in Edo State, suspecting that two or three persons may have met to pull Nigeria to the agreement without commensurate value for money.
House Committee on Finance made the observation at the resumed investigative hearing on the proposed sale of the National Integrated Power Plant (NIPP), by Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), where the representatives of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), could not give satisfactory answers to issues raised on the persistent epileptic power supply, with huge amount of money paid to power generation companies.
They, Mr. Victor Adewumi, Executive Director, Transmission Service Provider, TCN; Edmond Eje, Director Market Operator, TCN and Mr Ogwu Benedict in charge of agreements had appeared before the committee to give explanations.
But members could not come to terms with how the authorities signed an agreement with Azura on take-or-pay to commit 33 million Naira monthly on 450 megawatts, whether generated or not.
Committee chairman, James Faleke, fuming over the matter and vowing that the committee will unravel the mystery, said it is difficult to accept that such an amount was paid to one company.
Faleke, who felt disappointed in the representatives of TCN, especially the market operator, ruled in a motion to summon the TCN Managing Director, Sule Abdulaziz.
The lawmaker said he was not particularly confused over the back and forth of the representatives that could not specifically explain how many megawatts of electricity had been evacuated from Azura from 2017 till date.
“I am not confused. Transmission Company of Nigeria, first your MD took permission, according to you, to see the minister, rather than coming to explain to Nigerians and to clarify issues.
‘’Market Operator, if I understood your earlier statement that they have not been producing up to the 450MW that was signed and they have justification for not producing up to that, in that case, will you say as a Nigerian that they have violated the agreement they signed?
“What you are telling Nigerians generally is that from the position you hold and being paid by taxpayers, you are not representing Nigerians and that your seat is already in danger.
That is what you are telling Nigerians because you cannot even take an informed decision when it is necessary to take decisions on behalf of Nigerians.
‘’That is exactly what you have just exhibited. Why you are here before us was because you evacuate the power produced by generating companies, not only Azura.”
