How Obasanjo Allocated N88b Power Contracts, Reps Told - Without Any Tender - NIPP, An illegal Body - CBN Gov Summoned

Bola Badmus and Idowu Samuel, Abuja - 15.03.2008

HOUSE of Representatives was on Friday told of how ex-President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, allocated power contracts worth over N88 billion to a company, Rockson Engineering Company, out of the $3.5 billion through the Nigerian Independent Power Project (NIPP) charged with the responsibility of awarding contracts to improve the nation’s power supply.

This revelation came as the Managing Director of NIPP, Mr. James Olotu, declared before the House Committee on Power and Steel probing the $16 billion wasted on power generation by the Obasanjo administration in the eight years he stayed in office that the agency was an illegal body and did not have the force of law as well as jurisdictional powers.

According to Olotu, the NIPP has no law backing its set up, it could not sue and could also not be sued.
Friday’s public hearing was not attended by the governor of Cross River, Sen. Liyet Imoke; Governor of Niger State, Dr. Aliyu Babangida and that of Ondo State, as they were still being expected as at press time.

However, the committee of the House headed by Hon. Ndudi Godwin Elumelu, has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, to appear before it unfailingly to give detailed account of how the organization under him participated in the so-called rot in the power sector.

The summons given to Prof. Soludo came as the committee rejected the appearance of the CBN Deputy Governor (Operations), Sulaimon Barau, on behalf of the governor, who was said to be in Jos attending to a non-specific assignment after having been invited by the committee.

According to the managing director of NIPP, Obasanjo was the one who awarded the total contracts worth over N88 billion to Rockson, single-handed – a company whose managing director is Senator Aniette Okon.

Olotu said the award did not pass through the approval of the Federal Tenders Board, saying the company merely submitted bids which were sent before the due process.

The managing director of NIPP told the House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel that the contracts included the construction of gas power plants in Omokwu (Rivers State), Gbarain (Bayelsa State), Alaoji and Egbema, with contract sums ranging between N16 billion and N20 billion.

Olotu said the ex-president caused the awards of such contracts in four locations across the country after he visited the Omokwu Gas Power Plant built by Rockson in Port- Harcourt.

The NIPP boss disclosed that in spite of the fact that close to 90 per cent of the total cost of the projects had been paid out to the contractors, the completion rate had been dismal, as it ranged between five per cent and 10 per cent.

However, the chairman of Rockson, former Senator Okon, disputed that the company was paid any amount for the job so far done, even as he disputed the completion figures of the NIPP for the various projects.

Olotu said the NIPP was supposed to be a consortium belonging to all the three tiers of government – including the federal, state and local government, with power projects undertaken by the body to be funded from excess crude account.

Meawhile, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Abdulhamid Omar, has expressed solidarity with the House committee probing the wasted fund in the power sector, even as he said Nigeria was watching and waiting for the outcome of the investigations.

Omar, who was physically present at the hearing, expressed the belief that the recommendations of the committee would be implemented, unlike in the past, and those found culpable made to pay for their sins.