Power Probe: FG’ll Implement Report - Aondoakaa

22.03.2008

THE Attorney- General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, on Thursday said the federal government would implement the recommendations of the House of Representatives probe into the power and steel sector.

Aondoakka gave the assurance in Abuja while testifying before the House Committee on Power and Steel investigating expenditure in the sector in the last eight years. The minister said the policy of the President Umaru Yar'Adua administration was to watch and see the outcome of the committee's report and enforce its recommendations.

"Let me assure you and Nigerians that if the committee finishes its investigative hearing and submit its reports, the burden of implementation will be on me as the Attorney-General," he said. The minister said the focus of the present administration was to apply strictly the rule of law, irrespective of whose ox was gored. Answering questions on why the federal government refused to obey court order with respect to Lagos government, the minister promised to check the records whether there was no counter-order.

On foreigners drafting contractual agreements on behalf of the federal government, Aondoakka said it was wrong under the law for any foreign lawyer to draw agreements. He said the Body of Legal Benchers recently petitioned Yar'Adua on the matter, saying his ministry was already reviewing the case.

"Under the Legal Practitioners' Act, practice of legal agreements are supposed to be executed by lawyers in the country. It is not allowed in our laws for a foreigner to draw up agreements under whatever guise. ''It is illegal under our laws. So, if any agency is doing that, it is illegal,'' he added.

In his testimony, Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, said there were few differences in his submission on the total expenditure in power sector between 1999 and 2007 compared to that of the Accountant-General's Office.

Usman, who gave a run down of the total expenditure in power sector from 1999 to 2007, said they were categorised into capital and recurrent expenditure. He said the total excess crude for National Integrated Power Project was 3.067 billion dollars.