Tony Edike
24 March 2008
Lagos — Enugu-the current investigation into the nation's power sector has continued to generate more reactions as some politicians in the South-East zone hailed the probe as a welcome development but declared that the startling revelations so far made have shown that Nigeria spent the last eight years buying darkness.
Former Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige and Vice Presidential candidate of the Action Congress, Chief Ben Obi, said though the revelations made so far were not unexpected, further probe into other sectors of the economy would expose monumental frauds committed in the past which could force the Nigerian masses to troop out to the streets to express their anger.
Speaking in separate interviews in Enugu, the politicians urged the present regime to ensure that the kind of waste of public resources witnessed in the past was not allowed to continue.
Ngige, who was full of regrets that the nations power sector could not work eight years after the country transited from military to civilian rule, stated that revelations from the current power sector probe have indicated that the last administration spent eight years exploiting the masses.
He believes that the nation would not achieve the desired progress until the anomalies identified in the probe were properly addressed.
"It is quite a revelation and it means the country has spent eight years buying darkness with her hard earned resources. I want to say that the probe should be extended to other sectors. We should know what happened to the Petroleum sector and why our refineries are not working with Nigeria still importing fuel, nine years after we took over from military government. We need to know those who are benefiting from these dilapidation and encumbrances of the refineries.
So the power sector probe is a welcome development, but I am not surprised because those, who handled projects in the past, wanted to rip the nation off," said Ngige.
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