Power Outage During Senate Probe: Ministry Holds National Assembly Responsible
The Ministry of Power on has blamed the management of the National Assembly for the power outages which stalled Wednesday’s sitting of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee empanelled to probe the funds expended on the power sector since 1999.
According to the ministry, in a statement by Mr. Timothy Oyedeji, Deputy Director (Press), the cause of the frequent power outages experienced at the sitting was not from the distribution network of Abuja Distribution Company, DISCO.
The ministry noted that with its alternative source of power supply, the National Assembly could have made use of its stand-by generator for an assignment of that magnitude.
Parts of the statement reads: “The official position about this unfortunate development is that it was the faulty internal electricity supply system that caused the frequent power outages and not from the distribution network of Abuja DISCO.
“NASS, with its alternative source of power supply, could have put on the stand-by generator for an assignment of this magnitude, so the problem is with its internal supply system,” it stated.
In another development, the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, has said the ongoing probe might be another exercise in futility.
It lamented that the House of Representatives Committee on Power headed by Ndudi Elumelu probed the same power sector and submitted its reports with recommendations.
“Till date, nothing came out of it. We wonder how the current probe would be different,” NUEE said.
TheStreetReporters.com recalls that the House of Representatives had mandatetd the Elumelu committee to investigate why over $16 billion spent on various projects in the power sector from 1999 to May 2007 failed to yield much improvement in electricity supply to the country.
The committee, with Elumelu as chairman, held public hearings and visited sites of the various power projects to accomplish its task.
The job of the committee was reportedly marred by allegations of bribery.
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