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Nigeria: Controversy as Power Probe Panel Submits Report Today
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Daily Trust (Abuja)
8 July 2008
Posted to the web 8 July 2008
Tashikalmah Hallah and Francis Okeke
Abuja
The House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel that investigated the alleged $16bn expenditure in the power sector is billed to submit its report today amidst protest by some committee members.
The investigation was instituted following separate remarks by President Umaru Yar'adua and Speaker Dimeji Bankole that the Olusegun Obasanjo administration had committed billions of dollars into the sector without commensurate results.
Committee accepted written submission from from former President Olusegun Obasanjo about his role in managing the funds. His former Ministers of Power and Steel, all of whom are now governors as well as contractors testified before the panel which had hitherto visited all project sites as part of the efforts to unravel the mystery behind the huge expenditure. In almost all instances, the committee met empty sites whereas the contractors were said to have collected huge amount, some running into billions of naira.
The report is said to contain damming indictment of top echelon of the last administration according to a source who however did not give further details
Daily Trust learnt yesterday the committee will submit its report to the House today but members are said to be divided, with some accusing the chairman, Ndudi Godwin Elumelu of writing the report without any input from the them.
There are 27 Members in the committee and Daily Trust learnt that Elumelu at the beginning of the public hearing created a sub committees which is vested with the responsibility of writing the report after the public hearing, headed by Ajibola Muraina (PDP, Oyo state).
But a source told our correspondent the technical committee was not consulted when the report was written. Mr Muraina in a telephone interview last night claimed ignorance of the report. He told our correspondent, "I don't know anything about the submission of the report. If there is any report, then it's only the chairman that can tell you something about it."
Another source claimed that the "chairman of the Committee, Ndudi Godwin Elumelu (PDP, Delta) and few others sat and wrote the report in London without taking input from majority of the Members".
"It is a one man report. Majority of the Members of the committee don't know the content of the report and we're going to oppose the presentation tomorrow", the source said adding , "the report to be presented violated Order 14 rule 2 sub C of the House standing rule".
The Source explained, "On Sunday, June 29, to be precise I got a text message from the clerk of the committee inviting us to a meeting at the Chairman's house by 7:00pm. Immediately I got the text message I called him and told him that I will not attend the meeting because it was Sunday.
"Later, the Clerk sent another text message saying that the meeting has been rescheduled to Monday 30th June, by 3pm but was later rescheduled to 7pm at Rockview Hotel.
"At Rockview Hotel about eleven Members attended the meeting and the chairman told us that he had written the report and we're going to consider it. Immediately he brought forward a three volume report and said he was going to read out the recommendations for adoption. We asked for copies of the report but he told us that he could not reproduce copies because of the fear that it would be leaked to the press before it is submitted and that there was no money for the reproduction.
But we asked him where he got the money he used to produce the report? We asked him to go and source for money to reproduce the report and we agreed to meet on Wednesday 2 nd July at Sharaton Hotel and Towers". But the source explained their meeting at the Rockview Hotel was the first one since the committee concluded its public hearing in May.
A Member of the Committee who pleaded not to be mentioned "because it will jeopardise our plans", said most members of the committee were taken aback when they got another text message from the clerk of the committee inviting them to a meeting on Tuesday 1st July instead of the agreed date of July 2. "When I went to the meeting, which was held at the Sheraton Hotel, I met the chairman with few other members and he was reading the alleged committee report.
I asked the Clerk to the Committee my copy, and he told me that there was no report and that I should ask the chairman of the Committee. The Clerk told me that he doesn't know anything about the report", the source added. The source said that he walked out of the meeting in protest and was followed by many others.
The source added that in the report presented to them by the chairman he used some unparliamentarily language on some of the contractors citing that the report had called one of the NIPP contractors as 'dubious' and when the Members protest the language the chairman insisted that the word should not be changed.
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Although, details of the report to be presented is sketchy as at press time, Patrick Obahiagbon told Daily Trust in a telephone chat that, " Yes, the report of the committee is ready, we have tried our best but I don't know when the report is going to be presented. On that only the chairman can answer you. You can call him", he added.
Running a country of over 120 million people in this way shows how still very PRIMITIVE the politicians are. THIS IS SHAMEFUL. However, this approach clearly demonstrates to the world the modus operandi of the ruling politicians.
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