allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Power Probe - Atiku Ready to Face House (Page 1 of 2)

Former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has said that he will honour the invitation of the House of Representatives Committee probing the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) if invited.

Also yesterday, the Director General of the Due Process Office, Mr Emeka Eze, clarified his statement on the NIPP projects, insisting that although the projects passed through the office, the payments were made without recourse to the office.

Declaring his intention to appear before the House, the former vice-president, who chaired the NIPP committee, said he did not however think he had any insider's information to give the lawmakers because he was sidelined as chairman.

The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, had said last week that former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his former deputy, Abubakar, might be summoned to appear before the committee if there were clarifications to be made on the NIPP contract awards.

Abubakar, speaking through his Media Adviser, Mallam Garba Shehu, said: "If an invitation is extended, as a law abiding citizen of this country, he would certainly honour the invitation.

"If invitation is properly extended to the former vice-president, he would honour the invitation, but it would be a mere waste of time as Atiku Abubakar as the former vice-president would have nothing to tell the committee."

The reason for this, Shehu said, was because "he has no insider's information to offer to the committee. It is true that he was appointed to chair the NIPP committee, but also, counter directive was given to members of the NIPP committee not to attend meetings with the vice-president presiding.

"So Atiku's presence at the committee would be both tantamount to wasting the time of the House of Representatives Committee and that of Atiku himself. The truth of the matter is that Atiku was sidelined as far as the NIPP committee is concerned. The former President asked the members of the committee not to see Atiku. So, he has nothing to offer."

The DG of Due Process Office was reacting to THISDAY's report yesterday which showed that at least 29 companies which undertook projects under the NIPP were issued due process certificates.

Documents obtained by THISDAY showed that 29 companies which were awarded contracts under the NIPP project were issued certificates for contract awarded by the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU). It was clearly stated on the certificates that "the project(s) satisfied all due process requirements for proceeding to seek Federal Executive Council (FEC) consideration."

Eze had last Tuesday stated before the House of Represent-atives Committee on Power and Steel probing expenditure on the power sector between 2000 and 2007, that the $3.54 billion NIPP projects being a presidential intervention did not pass through the Due Process Office for payment and so his office had no knowledge of the payments being revealed before the probe panel.

But explaining the difference between the Certificate of Contract Award and Certificate of Payment, Eze said "the Certificate of Payment is what the Accountant General uses to mandate payment of Federal Government money by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to the spending unit on behalf of the Federal Government's contractors."

Eze said: "The Certificates of Contract Award are based on the process review by Due Process Office and merely enables the spending unit to move forward to seek the final approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to award any Federal Government Contract. The only use of such certificate is to enable the ministry seek FEC's final approval to award. It is not a certificate to make payment as your story asserts. What you published is certificate for award of contract which I repeatedly said we issued."

Key figures involved in the NIPP projects had since the beginning of the probe initiated by the House of Representatives appeared before the investigating panel of the lower chamber of the National Assembly during which startling revelations were made regarding expenditure on the NIPP.

Meanwhile, an indigenous company, Rockson Engineering Ltd, the contractors handling some of the power projects, currently being probed by the House of Representatives Power and Steel Committee, has said the Federal Government is indebted to it to the tune of N12 billion for all the work it has executed so far.

The company has also accused the federal government of delaying the projects' take off by not meeting its contractual obligations.

For instance all the four gas turbines for the Alaoji projects brought into the country site since 2006 are still at the Onne Port, Port Harcourt, due to the inability of the contractor to move them to the project site.

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