Senate Set To Probes N1.8trn Spent On Power Sector Intervention
By Our Correspondent
The Senate Committee on Power said on Thursday that it had concluded plans to execute a three-day investigative hearing on the operations of the power sector since privatisation in 2013.
The Upper Chamber panel said it had the mandate to unravel how the N1.8 trillion injected into the privatised power entities by the Federal Government in the last seven years was utilised.
The privatisation exercise was consolidated on September 13, 2013 during the tenure of former president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.
The Chairman of the Senate Panel, Senator Gabriel Suswan, informed journalists after the meeting with his panel that the probe had no punitive intent. Suswan said various sums ranging from N701billion, N600 billion, N380 billion and N213 billion had been released as intervention fund in the last seven years.
According to him the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed and her counterparts in the Ministry of Power, Salleh Mamman, among other heads of government agencies in the power sector as well as private sector operators had been summoned.
Suswan said the panel would unravel causes of insolvency in the power sector despite the interventions.
The senator said the Federal Government had consistently intervened at various times but lamented that there had been no improvement in the sector.
