The senator representing Kogi
West, Dino Melaye of the All Progressives Congress, has asked his colleagues in
the upper legislative chamber to look into the alleged “monumental fraud” in
the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing under the leadership Babatunde
Fashola.
The senator claimed that the
Ministry lavished $385 million on projects not appropriated in the budget
between 2013 and 2016.
He said that $300 million of the
fund was given to IBEX while another $35 million was paid to General Electric
and some others.
He said, “Mr. President, in line
with the anti-corruption posture of this chamber and especially now that our
cries, observations are yielding dividends as expressly manifested in the case
of Babachir Lawal, today, I bring to the attention of this Senate a monumental
fraud in the power sector.
“In July 2013, the federal
Government raised $1 billion from Eurobond issue. From the proceeds, $350
million was given to IBEX in 2014.
“Mr. President, this money was
stolen in instalments. As I speak to you, sometimes last year again, the
Ministry of Power came up with a term they call fast power. This indigested
project is supposed to build new generating plants to add power to our grid.”
He sought the leave of the Senate
to present a substantive motion on the issue while asking questions on how the
Ministry spent the funds it received.
“Mr President, there are few
questions we need to ask and that is why I need the nod of the Senate to bring
a substantive motion to move in the next legislative day.
“These are the few questions: Up
to date, there is no detail to build this new generating plant or a feasibility
study, there is no appropriation by the National Assembly for these projects.
“The Ministry has spent so far
$35 million on the Afam fast power project that has no appropriation or
feasibility studies. How and when was this money appropriated, we need to find
out. Out of this money, $29 million was purportedly paid to General Electric
for turbines while $6 million was paid to others.
“These, among many other
monumental frauds, are taking place. We need the Senate to investigate this.”
In his response, the Senate
President, Bukola Saraki asked Melaye to present the issue as a motion on
Tuesday after a voice vote in its favour.
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