The senator representing Kogi West, Dino
Melaye of the All Progressives Congress, has asked his colleagues in
the upper legislative chamber to look into the alleged “monumental
fraud” in the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing under the leadership
Babatunde Fashola.
The senator claimed that the Ministry lavished $385 million on projects not appropriated in the budget between 2013 and 2016.
He said that $300 million of the fund was given to IBEX while another $35 million was paid to General Electric and some others.
“In July 2013, the federal Government
raised $1 billion from Eurobond issue. From the proceeds, $350 million
was given to IBEX in 2014.
“Mr. President, this money was stolen in
instalments. As I speak to you, sometimes last year again, the Ministry
of Power came up with a term they call fast power. This indigested
project is supposed to build new generating plants to add power to our
grid.”
He sought the leave of the Senate to
present a substantive motion on the issue while asking questions on how
the Ministry spent the funds it received.
“Mr President, there are few questions
we need to ask and that is why I need the nod of the Senate to bring a
substantive motion to move in the next legislative day.
“These are the few questions: Up to
date, there is no detail to build this new generating plant or a
feasibility study, there is no appropriation by the National Assembly
for these projects.
“The Ministry has spent so far $35
million on the Afam fast power project that has no appropriation or
feasibility studies. How and when was this money appropriated, we need
to find out. Out of this money, $29 million was purportedly paid to
General Electric for turbines while $6 million was paid to others.
“These, among many other monumental frauds, are taking place. We need the Senate to investigate this.”
In his response, the Senate President,
Bukola Saraki asked Melaye to present the issue as a motion on Tuesday
after a voice vote in its favour.
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