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Five
civil society groups have presented the report of the investigations by
the House of Representatives on the power sector to the Independent
Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offence Commission (ICPC), and to
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), asking them to
“urgently take action on the reports.”

Also presented to
the anti-graft agencies was the report on the non-remittance of
received public revenue into the federation account by ministries,
departments, and agencies between 2003 and 2008.

The reports were
also submitted to the director of operations of the Economic and
Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Salawu Bello, who represented the
agency’s chairperson.

The groups, which
made the presentation in a meeting with the chairman of ICPC, Olayinka
Ayoola, demanded that the people indicted in the power probe report
must be prosecuted forthwith.

The groups quoted
the recommendation made by the report that both the ICPC and EFCC
prosecute former president, Olusegun Obasanjo; the former minister of
power and steel, Liyel Imoke; former minister of state for energy,
Abdulhamid Ahmed; and former minister of power and steel, Olusegun
Agagu.

Other former
government officials the report mentioned for prosecution included the
former managing director of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN),
Joseph Makoju; the chief executive officer of Transmission Company of
Nigeria (TCN), C. E. Ifesie, and his assistant general manager, G.O.P.
Osakue.

The NIPP’s project
manager, Mike Ezeudenna; the chairperson, technical committee of NIPP,
C. N. O. Nwachukwu; and the managing director of NIPP, J. A. Olotu, and
others were all asked to face the law for the mismanagement of funds.

The House of
Representatives in 2008 mandated its committee on power and steel to
conduct a comprehensive investigation into how huge sums of money was
expended on power generation, transmission, and distribution between
June 1999 and May 2007, without any commensurate result as the nation’s
power generation fell to a meagre 2,500MW.

The last
administration claimed to have expended $16 billion on overhauling the
nation’s power sector via the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP).

The groups added
that the committee submitted its report at the end of the
investigation, in which it revealed that “the sum of $13.28 billion was
expended on the power sector during the period, with further unfunded
commitment of over $12 billion” and nothing has been done on the report
till date.

“Specifically, the
report concluded that looting of the national treasury through the
National Power Project (NPP) and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria
(PHCN) greatly diminished national capacity to provide electric
power…” the groups noted.

Crimes against humanity

They also quoted
the report as saying “what senior officials and politicians did is an
economic crime against humanity, which has caused Nigerians not only
financial loss, but also inestimable mental and physical suffering.”

Some companies on
the indicted list are Rockson Engineering/ Rockson International; Pivot
Engineering; Marubeni West Africa and Marubeni International; Lahmeyer
International; and ABB Powerlines.

The second report
submitted by the groups, alleged that “between 2003 and 2008, about N4
trillion, collected by various ministries, departments and agencies in
the area of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), Pay As You Earn (PAYE),
Withholding Tax (WHT), Value Added Tax (VAT), and Operating Surpluses,
were not remitted into the Federation Account” as dictated by the
constitution.

Reaction to groups’ demand

ICPC chairperson
promised to “urgently work on the reports”, while the EFCC director
noted that he was not sure whether the reports were already submitted
to the agency. He promised to make enquiries and get back to the group.

The civil groups
championing this call includes the Socio-Economic Rights and
Accountability Project (SERAP); Committee for Defence of Human Rights
(CDHR); Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja Branch; Center for the
Rule of Law (CENTROLAW); and the National Association of Democratic
Lawyers (NADL).