The House of Representatives said on
Monday that the country had lost revenue in
excess of N15bn from alleged unauthorised
sale, leasing and transfer of non- core assets
of the defunct Power Holding Company of
Nigeria.
The non- core assets are properties of the
PHCN not directly used for power generation
or distribution. They were not included in
the assets sold to private – sector investors
in the wake of the full privatisation of the
sector, which started in 2011.
The assets were said to have been retained
by the Federal Government as public
property and handed over to the Nigeria
Electricity Liability Management Company for
coordination.
However, many Nigerians had petitioned the
House, alleging that some of the assets were
either sold , stolen, leased, vandalised or
transferred to some persons without due
process.
The House had mandated its Sub –
Committee on Power/Privatisation/
Procurement to investigate the alleged
“shady deals ” with a view to recovering the
losses .
The committee opened a public hearing on
the issue at the National Assembly in Abuja
on Monday. The Lead Chairman of the probe
panel, Mr. Gaza Jonathan, stated that while
the government ’s plan of keeping the
assets in the care of NELMCO was to sell
them and use part of the proceeds to offset
the liabilities of PHCN, not much of the
objective had been achieved.
Jonathan, a member of the Peoples
Democratic Party from Nasarawa State, while
giving details, said, “It will interest you to
note that a conservative investigation has
revealed monumental losses to the
government and the people of Nigeria in
excess of about N 15bn as a result of
underleases, unauthorised sales,
misappropriation of funds, abuse of process
and outright negligence.
“In consideration of the present financial
and economic times when the country is
facing harsh realities caused by recession, it
has come as a great concern to the House
that on the transfer of these assets, many of
them are being leased at undervalued rates,
while others are gifted out to distribution
companies and some even diverted. ”
Jonathan added that the scope of the
investigation covered non – core assets sold
from the “era of Niger Dam, Electricity
Corporation of Nigeria, National Electric
Power Authority, PHCN and NELMCO. ”
On Monday , the committee grilled officials
of NELMCO; the Bureau of Public Enterprises;
power firms and heads of agencies directly
linked with the transactions.
The BPE confirmed that the assets were
indeed handed over to NELMCO, noting that
they were initially being sold “ without
coordination. ”
The Director General of the BPE , Mr. Alex
Okoh, told the committee that the National
Council on Privatisation intervened by taking
over the assets from NELMCO and placing
them under a new assets sales committee.
However, he disclosed that when the
current All Progressives Congress
government took over power in 2015,
NELMCO wrote to the NCP to complain that it
was its responsibility to oversee the sales.
Okoh stated that the NCP, now under Vice –
President Yemi Osinbajo, looked into the
complaints of NELMCO, following which the
assets were returned to NELMCO again.
“ Up till now, the sales have not commenced.
“We are still waiting for the approval of the
NCP, ” he said.
On its part, NELMCO made a presentation to
the committee to admit that following an
audit of the assets done internally, there
was a “revealing report” on how the assets
were managed in the past.
The Managing Director of NELMCO, Mr.
Adebayo Fegbemi, said, “There was an audit.
We reviewed the entire stock.
“The report is revealing. We have yet to
dispose of the assets.
“We are planning the sales to ensure that
we comply with government’s guidelines on
the sale of public assets. ”
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