The House of Representatives on Thursday directed the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) and the Niger Delta Power Holding Company to immediately halt the planned sales of five power plants belonging to the three tiers of government without following due process.
Adopting a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Chairman of House Committee on Power, Magaji Aliyu Dau, the House asked the Director General BPE, Alex Okoh to desist from any act aimed at facilitating the sales of the 5 power plants until such sale is duly authorised by the shareholders at a formal meeting as stipulated by the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020.
Leading a debate on the motion, Dau said the National Council on Privatisation and Board of Directors of the NDPHC in collaboration with the Bureau of Public Enterprises through a request for expression of interest has already resolved to sell the five power plants located in Calabar, Cross River State, Ihorbor, Edo State, Olorunsogo, Omotosho and Geregu, Kogi State.
According to him, the plants were constructed under the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) with gross installed capacities at 150 condition 5O7.6MW, 507MW, 634MW, 513MW and 754MW respectively to support the delivery of core mandate of the company of ensuring the stability of Nigeria’s Power Sector.
He said the shareholding of the NDPHC is held by the Federal Government 47 percent, States and local Governments, 53 percent while the board has the Vice President as the Chairman, with 6 State governors representing the six Geo-Political Zones and four Federal Ministers of Justice, Finance, Power and State Petroleum as members.
He recalled that in 2013, there was an attempt to sell the power generation plants which failed on the ground of an apparent need to stop reliance on one grid system, hence the need to set up small hydro generation plants in the various States.
He expressed concerns that the Federal Government insists to proceed with the sale of these assets despite the fact that the consent of the other shareholders have not been resolved.
He said: “Further worried that the Privatisation Act which expressly lists the enterprises to be privatised did not list NDPHC or any of its subsidiary generation companies on the ground that it is not wholly owned by the Federal Government, yet, the BPE encourages the Federal Government to proceed without corresponding approval of all the shareholders to validate the process.
“ Disturbed that the current timing of the Privatisation even if it is approved by the prospective shareholders may not enable the greatest financial value due to current commercial and technical constraints in the industry associated with poor state transmission, distribution capacity, underpayment /liquidity in the market aggravated by global economic recession which will make the assets to be sold at undervalue price and Cause avoidable lost to the shareholders.”
The lawmaker said the interest of the shareholders and national economy will be jeopardized if urgent action is not taken to stop the BPE from selling the assets under irregular procurement process.
Deputy Minority Leader Toby Okechukwu said the Federal Government cannot sell assets belonging to them and other stakeholders without following due process
“The Federal government cannot sell assets belonging to them and other stakeholders. They can displace their own assets or shares but don’t come in to rail road the states to do whatever. The chairman of the committee should counsel them that this the extent of power they can exercise,” Okechukwu said.
The House Committee on Finance asked the BPE and other agencies of government involved in the planned sale to halt the process as it will be injurious to the Nigerian economy.
In separate letters addressed the Minister of Finance, Minister of Power, Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprise, Managing Director, Niger Delta Power Holding Company and the Managing Director, Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company, the Committee said the planned sale is being carried out without “due regards to constitutional principles and economic policy that informed the establishment of those power plants.
The letters signed by Chairman of the Committee,James Abiodun Faleke said: “The committee decried the proposed sale as uneconomical and a disservice to all known principles of national development and the sharing equity among the three tiers of government”.