Personnel of the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Navy have killed five fighters of the Indigenous People of Biafra during a gun battle that occurred at Ejemekuru in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State. The encounter with IPOB’s fighters is coming a few days after a fierce gun duel between the troops and IPOB fighters occurred in the Orsu LG of the state.
The troops killed an IPOB fighter in the operation and recovered three Improvised Explosive Devices, one Toyota Highlander SUV, one Hilux vehicle, eight rounds of 7.62mm (Special) ammunition, among others from their hideouts.
As contained in a statement issued by the Director, Army Public Relations, Maj. Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu on Wednesday, the troops, during the combined operations, recovered one AK-47 rifle and two pump-action Semi-automatic rifles, among others.
The statement read, “In a successful raid operation conducted into identified IPOB/ESN camps on Tuesday 5 March 2024, combined Nigerian Army and Nigerian Navy troops have neutralised five armed fighters in a firefight that ensued at Ejemekuru in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State.
“On overpowering the Armed separatists’ resistance with overwhelming firepower, the gallant troops recovered a significant cache of dangerous weapons including one AK-47 rifle, 2 Pump-action Semi-automatic rifles, one locally fabricated gun, 2 magazines, and 3 rounds of 7.62mm Special ammunition. The troops also recovered 2 motorbikes, 2 mobile handsets, and a Camouflage jungle hat.”
Onyema also said that 15 kidnapped victims in counter-insurgency operations conducted in the North West were rescued.
The Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Police Force, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, has said that Nigeria records more road crashes than other countries. Adejobi noted that the avoidable road accidents in Nigeria actually kill more innocent citizens than insecurity based on the records available to the police.
The FPRO stated this on Wednesday while responding to an X user who told him to tell the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, who was attending the World Police Summit in Dubai, UAE, to observe the organization of police stations in Dubai and the absence of accidents and seized vehicles.
In his response, Adejobi wrote, “Stations littered with accident(ed) and sized vehicles are not the fault of the police. It’s a legal matter and, in most cases, reckless nature of some Nigerian drivers.
“In Dubai, they are not reckless on the road, and you can’t drive in Dubai without being certified and licensed. This is common in Nigeria.
“The citizens comply and respect the law in Dubai. Many of us in Nigeria deliberately disregard and disobey the law.
“They don’t record many road crashes as we do here and be guided that the police can’t dispose of these vehicles without a court order. The process is cumbersome.
“Note again that the rate at which we kill ourselves through road crashes is alarming. I know, and based on records we keep, that road crashes claim more lives of innocent Nigerians than the acclaimed insecurity sagas in the country.”
The FPRO added that he will later release statistics that reveal the rate at which Nigerians die in road crashes. He wrote, “I will soon release the figures, and you can see how we lose innocent Nigerians to road crashes.
“Road crashes happen everywhere, but we record avoidable crashes in Nigeria more than any other country because we are often reckless on the road, we drive without licenses and deliberately violate traffic laws.
“I lost 2 people to a reckless crash in a day. My dad and his olori. Just because a commercial car drove against the traffic along Ibadan/Ife road, at Gbongan Junction, in Osun State. And many have various experiences. We need to think and campaign against reckless driving and crashes in Nigeria.”
The PUNCH reports that not less than 12 persons died, while 28 others suffered varying degrees of injuries in a road crash that occurred on Monday along the Zaria-Kano Expressway.
United Nations has decried illegal trade in wildlife and forest product, insisting that low enlightenment, weak legislation and implementation among other gaps continued to impede effective prosecutions of offenders.
Speaking at this year’s commemoration of the World Wildlife Day (WWD), themed: “Connecting People and Planet: Exploring Digital Conservation”, in Abuja on Tuesday, the Country Representative, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Oliver Stolpe, where a presentation of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime, (ICCWC), Toolkit Report for Nigeria in collaboration with the UNODC and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, (FAO) was made.
He said: “While thanks to the good work of the Nigeria Customs Service, (NCS), seizures at Nigeria’s land, sea and airport border points have been on the rise, two thirds of all seizures involving Nigeria were reported by the authorities of other countries.
“This suggests that interception capabilities still need to be strengthened, while enhanced information exchange and cooperation with relevant authorities in countries of origin, transit and destination offer opportunities for intelligence led operations and parallel or even joint investigations with the objective of detecting and dismantling trafficking networks.”
He added that the 2023 UNODC Organized Crime Threat Assessment for Nigeria revealed that “Nigeria is a key transit hub and consolidation point for various forms of illegal trade in wildlife and forest products, especially for pangolin, ivory and rosewood.
“These products are sourced both from Nigeria as well as from other countries in the region including Cameroon, Gabon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire and Benin Republic.”
He added that: “According to UNODC’s World Wildlife Seizures Database, there are more than a 1000 records between 2011 and 2020 which indicate Nigeria as a source, transit or destination country, or where the offender was a Nigerian national.”
Stolpe noted that “Another finding of the research suggests that armed groups are increasingly involved in the illegal harvesting and trafficking of rosewood, with nine park rangers losing their lives in violent encounters with persons involved in illegal logging in the Gashaka-Gumti National Park. in general, it appears that illegal logging activities continue, despite the 2018 trade suspension of rosewood from Nigeria.”
The UN body called on religious and traditional leaders to partner with the government in enlightening Nigerians on the importance of preserving and protecting Nigeria’s rich biodiversity.
In commemoration of the World Wildlife Day celebration, the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal, has emphasized the importance of digital innovation in conserving biodiversity and protecting wildlife.
Abbas who made the disclosure today in Abuja, with the theme ”Connecting People and Planet: Exploring Digital Conservation,” highlighted the significant role of technology in safeguarding the planet’s extraordinary biodiversity.
According to him, there is need to leverage technological advancements to combat illegal wildlife trade, mitigate habitat loss, and address the impacts of climate change.
Also the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Country Team Leader, Dr. Otto Muhinda, emphasized the importance of recognizing emerging and reemerging diseases, as they pose a significant threat to global health.
He underscored the need for coordinated efforts to prevent outbreaks and mentioned the collaborative initiatives undertaken by global organizations such as the FAO and the United Nations Environment Program.
Drawing attention to Nigeria’s own challenges, Dr. Muhinda cited examples of zoonotic diseases prevalent in the country, including Lassa fever and anthrax. He emphasized that wildlife serves as a reservoir for many of these diseases, with 60% of zoonotic diseases originating from animals.
He emphasized the need to balance conservation efforts with preserving human health, particularly in communities that rely on wildlife as a source of food.
While acknowledging the focus of this year’s theme on digital innovation in conservation, Dr. Muhinda emphasized the importance of understanding the link between wildlife conservation and disease prevention. He stressed the need for data-driven approaches to identify and address diseases present in wildlife to safeguard human health effectively
Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal, on his part, said that digital tools empowers individuals to better understand, protect, and preserve our wildlife.
According to him, “From cutting-edge monitoring systems to innovative data analytics, digital conservation transcends geographical boundaries, fostering global collaboration and knowledge sharing among scientists, conservationists, and communities worldwide.
“By harnessing the collective power of technology, we can unite in our efforts to safeguard biodiversity and ensure a sustainable future for generations to come.”
The Conservator General, National Parks Services, Ibrahim Goni, while stressing the importance of protecting wildlife and forest resources, explained that: “Some of our protected and conserved areas that houses a wide array of these unique wildlife resources are battling with insecurity challenges such as banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling and other crime and criminality, as well as various anti-conservation activities including habitat destruction through illegal logging, hunting, communal agitation and quests for more farmlands, and of recent, illegal mining and exploration.
“Faced with this seeming ecological dislocation and its attendant toll they impinge on wildlife resources. This day will therefore remind us of the urgent need to scale up the fight against wildlife crime and human-induced reduction of species, which have wide-ranging economic, environmental and social impacts.”
Alex Otti has concluded arrangement to build a modern textile market in Aba with 24 hrs supply of electricity and free internet services. This is the kind of project I expected from visionary Governor .
Road construction is good but must come with other economic enablers that will be funded by the State as Government has enormous capacity to organize factors of production. Things like law and order, high wage to increase purchasing power , low cost housing for low income earners , modern market , modern abattoir, modern mechanic village , modern computer village ,modern farm settlements,a modern new city etc.
When a Governor has secured the confidence of his people ,put his plans in 3 D drawing , his people will contribute trillions of naira and hard currencies to fund any project. Some of these Governors are empty ,and visionless.
Gov Alex Otti is really working . I just came back from Enyimba city to see things by myself.
About 20 Years ago, Prof Barth Nnaji, a Jonathan-era Minister of Power in Nigeria, plunged headlong into the task of setting up a gas-fired Power Plant in Aba, apparently oblivious of, or underestimating the reach of the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Federal Exclusive Legislative List of the Death-Dispensing 1999 Constitution.
The gas to power the Plant was to come from nearby oilfield Owaza, Abia State which was about 15 minutes derive from the Osisioma, Aba Location of the Power Plant.
Aba had been in great darkness and in dire need of Electricity since the decades-long Shutdown of the Oji-River Power Plant by the Federal Government of Nigeria since Electricity Generation and Transmission went into the Exclusive List under the 1979 Constitution.
Everything seemed perfect; then Nigeria began to happen to the Project.
First, the system tried to criminalize Barth Nnaji and he was hauled into EFCC detention for all manners of spurious claims for things that happened during his tenure as Minister of Power.
They pinned some conflict-of-interest malfeasance on him as erstwhile Minister of Power; they frustrated every effort to pipe gas to the Power Plant that had been completed since over 10 years.
But for the current raging Union Dispute and the attempt by a floundering illicit Federal Government to placate the East and douse the tension that accompanied the 2023 Presidential Electoral Robbery, the 1967 Alliance, masquerading as “Federal Government” would have continued their blockade of Gas to the Geometric Power Plant in Aba. There were also issues of Transmission Infrastructure which is also locked in on the Exclusive List.
The Federal Government’s capacity to frustrate this and other Developmental and Infrastructural Projects, flows from the 68-Item Federal Exclusive Legislative List of the 1999 Constitution.
Even with the Commissioning of the Power Plant, the fact that Gas remains on the Exclusive List, leaves the Power Plant at the mercy of Abuja as long as the Unitary Constitution of Nigeria remains in place.
Worse still, the prospects of expansion to cover more cities and locations beyond Aba and Abia will suffer from the limitations imposed by Buhari’s bogus Constitution Amendments that pretend to have opened up Electricity Generation and Transmission since the Amendments only allowed the States to Generate and Transmit within their State Geographical Boundaries.
Many of the characters that gathered in Aba to take credit for the operationalization and commissioning into Production, of the Geometric Power Plant, including the Representatives of the Federal Government were involved in the many decades of sabotaging and frustrating that Project; even if not directly, the fact that they still cling tenaciously to the Unworkable Unitary Constitutional Order for Nigeria, render them guilty by conduct and association, as Electricity remains detained from Nigerians, just as Refineries, Security and Major Infrastructure.
While every commendation to Barth Nnaji and whoever facilitated the realization of the Electricity Project would be in order, the Euphoria now trailing the take-off of that Project is grossly misleading as some, including those who cling to the debilitating Unitary Constitution of Nigeria are creating the impression that gradually, we will get to where the issues of infrastructure would be resolved across Nigeria. This is falsehood and deceit.
The urgency of the need to Dismantle the Anti-Progress, Anti-Development Unitary Constitution of Nigeria has not abated.
Geometric was a long-drawn accident that ended on a happy note. Let us get back to addressing Nigeria’s Sovereignty Question and the Union Dispute that has arisen therefrom, especially the untenable Unitary Structure of Nigeria and the enshackling 68-Item Federal Exclusive Legislative List of the Fraudulent 1999 Constitution.
The world was a very different place when Geometric Power first agreed with the Federal Government in 2005 to generate and distribute power in Eastern Nigeria’s industrial hub of Aba.
For instance, Olusegun Obasanjo was Nigeria’s president at the time, a position he would hold for another two years until 2007.
Alex Otti, the current governor of Abia State, was an executive director, commercial banking at First Bank and won’t assume his role as managing director and CEO of Diamond Bank, one of the major financiers of the Aba Power project, until 2011, six years later.
Kashim Shettima, Nigeria’s vice president, who inaugurated the plant on Monday, was the manager of Zenith Bank’s Maiduguri branch.
It would, however, take nearly two decades for Geometric to finally get a shot at fulfilling its promise to provide 24-hour power supply to the city of Aba after it turned on the first of its four power-generating turbines for the first time on Sunday, February 25, 2024.
The transformative Aba Integrated Power Plant, Nigeria’s first, may now be up and running, with residents of the city jubilating over the impact it would have on the economy, but the private greed and government ineptitude that held it back for so long may forever cast a dark cloud over private investments in the power sector of Africa’s most populous country.
Geometric Power, owned by a professor of engineering and former minister of power, Barth Nnaji, had been prevented from keeping its promise of lighting up Aba after vested interests, crony capitalists, an inept bureaucracy putting up barriers to doing business and murky dealings traceable to the very top of Nigeria’s political class combined to delay the 181-megawatt power plant.
The plot to stop Geometric was at the time enabled by a hapless president, a vice president captured by vested interests and a defanged Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
Also playing a starring role in grounding the Aba power project was the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), where conflicting interests had led to deceit, and a private sector entity – Interstate Electrics, owners of Enugu Disco, whose intent was essentially to kill Geometric.
It was a tale with few heroes but lots of villains who conspired to keep the city of 2.5 million people perpetually in the dark.
Emeka Offor, the chairman of Chrome Group and promoter of Interstate Electrics Limited, who was a close friend of Namadi Sambo, Nigeria’s Vice President at the time, was said to have frustrated the operation of the power plant primed to deliver uninterrupted power supply to Aba, a shoe and garment hub in Africa.
The sheer misanthropy that accompanies Nigeria’s version of barefaced political brigandage and patronage has left households and industries in entrepreneurial Aba, the “Japan of Africa,” trapped under increasing blackouts.
In 2000, the combined turnover of the shoe and garment industry of Aba, the third-largest commercial city in Nigeria, was $200 million.
Offor, who was blocking the project, had Pius Anyim, secretary to the government of the federation, in his pocket, while Sam Amadi, the chairman and CEO of NERC, was beholden to Anyim.
Benjamin Dikki, director-general of the BPE, and Mohammed Bello Adoke, attorney-general, were also marionettes of the vice president.
Together, they managed to pull the wool over the eyes of former President Goodluck Jonathan, keeping him out of the loop with spurious procedural and legal issues.
Their delay tactics slowed down the take-off of a project financed by a consortium of American investors, local and international banks, as well as the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private-sector arm.
In 2001, after the successful execution of the 22 megawatts (MW) emergency power station in Abuja to serve a dedicated distribution network within the Federal Capital Territory, Nnaji, founder of Geometric, was inspired to initiate the Aba Integrated Power Project, a distribution project with an embedded generation company.
In 2004, Geometric Power Limited signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Government to build a power plant in Aba, and a year later, in April 2005, Geometric signed the Aba concession agreement, also with the Federal Government, which gave it the right to distribute power to Aba.
The government, NEPA, and APL executed a lease agreement on April 28, 2005, for the distribution of power to the ring-fenced residential and commercial consumers at Aba.
By the terms of the agreement, NEPA assigned its right to distribute electric power on the ring-fenced island of Owerrinta, Osisioma, Ogbor Hill, Factory Road, and Port Harcourt Road in Aba, and also leased its distribution facilities within the contract area.
Despite the huge promise it held not only for Aba but for a country where stable power was elusive and officials were scouring for templates to keep the lights on across the country, it appeared as though Geometric Power would never light up Aba as the politically-influential Emeka Offor stood in the way.
Geometric was licenced in 2005 to deliver power supply to Aba and Ariaria business units, just two out of 18 business units in the Enugu Disco licence areas.
However, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) sold EEDC to Emeka Offor’s Interstate Electrics without exempting Aba from the sale, thereby causing friction between Interstate Electrics and Geometric.
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The backing of then Vice President Namadi Sambo titled the balance in favour of Offor’s Interstate Electrics.
According to knowledgeable sources, the former vice president had vested interests in Interstate Electrics and wanted the company to end up buying Enugu Disco.
The Sambo-led National Council on Privatisation (NCP) bent the rules of the privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) successor companies, when Interstate Electrics failed to meet the August 21 deadline for the payment of the remaining 75 percent of the bid value.
The company was said to have lobbied the NCP and BPE to get them to grant it an extension to pay for the asset, for which industry analysts said there was no moral justification when similarly some investors were shut out at the preliminary stages in the same circumstances.
Until it got to Interstate Electric’s inability to make any payment at the August 21, 2013 deadline, the NCP and the BPE did not allow any exception. Even when Dangote was a few minutes late in submitting its bid for Geregu and Shiroro, it was disqualified.
In November 2012, the vice president had, through a memo, directed the BPE headed by Bola Onagoruwa to disregard the 2004 Memorandum of Understanding with Geometric Power, and the 2005 and 2006 lease agreements that ring-fenced Aba and Ariaria business units in favour of Geometric, but because she insisted that the contract should be honoured, she was asked to quit ‘with immediate effect’ on November 27, 2013.
Analysts described the development at the time as curious in terms of timing and very disturbing from an investor perspective.
In suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/106/2013, filed at a federal high court in Abuja, Geometric sought to restrain BPE from listing the two business units among government-owned companies slated for privatisation, as selling or privatising the entire Enugu Disco contravenes the existing agreements between the Federal Government and Aba Power Limited and Geometric.
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In another suit number, FHC/ABJ/CS/106/2013, Interstate Electrics Limited sought to be joined in the case instituted by Aba Power Limited and Geometric Power Aba Limited against the BPE.
In the understanding that an out-of-court settlement would be the best option for settling the dispute, the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) set up a peace committee.
In its report, obtained by BusinessDay, the NCP committee admitted that “BPE indicated that Aba ring-fence was encumbered, yet it included Aba ring-fence in its bid and that Aba ring-fenced area belongs entirely to Aba Power Ltd. with its generating power responsibilities.”
A report by NERC, after a visit to the Geometric Power infrastructure in Aba, submitted that “it will be a disservice to the country in general and the company (GPAL ad APL) in particular, after investing such a huge amount of money in power infrastructure, to be denied the terms of the tripartite agreement. A disregard of the agreement will cast a bad light on the Federal Government’s privatisation process and send a wrong signal to other prospective investors in the power sector.”.
In February 2014, a team from the Federal Ministry of Power, led by the permanent secretary, after visiting Aba, submitted that “the sanctity of the lease agreement of 2004 and the supplementary agreement of 2006 between the Federal Government and Geometric Power be respected and maintained.”
Several promises by former President Goodluck Jonathan to resolve the matter never materialised, and it was not until 2020 during the Muhammadu Buhari administration that the impasse was resolved.
Described as the biggest investment in the Southeast, Geometric Power has spent some $800 million on its integrated power project, which includes building a 27-kilometre natural gas pipeline from Owaza in Ukwa West LGA in Abia State to the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba.
Nnaji disclosed as far back as 2015 that his firm paid $3.5 million monthly as interest on the $500 million borrowed from Diamond Bank and other Nigerian financial institutions.
Geometric Power’s Aba project may be a case of better late than never but its dark side surely leaves more to be desired.
Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, on Thursday, said Nigeria should break up if the path would solve the country’s challenges.
Delivering his lecture titled ‘Recovering the Narrative’, Soyinka said Nigeria should decentralised for Nigerians to enjoy the country more.
The lecture, which was delivered by the Nobel laureate, is part of the weeklong activities marking the 50th anniversary of PUNCH.
The elder statesman said decentralisation would allow governance to get closer to the people, adding that it was high time for leaders to stop taking Nigerians for a ride.
“I know the fear. The fear is collapse, break up. That’s been the excuse given by several regimes. But suppose the nation is breaking up informally, in other words as a fact rather than as a theory. Then, and you better just address this. Come straight on and see exactly what happened.
What is wrong with general representatives seeing them and saying this is the protocol of our association, Anything outside of it?
Anyone who does not want to accept these protocols, abide by these protocols and manifest these protocols in the act should take a walk. I have no problem at all.
“We live in what is known as the nation beginning as a vast football field is ending up as a ping pong table. If that is going to restore dignity to citizens. If that is going to guarantee three square meals a day then so be it. One of my favourite expressions with people is “Let nations die, that humanity may live.”
He explained that while Nigerian politicians know the importance of restructuring, they change their tune when they get to power.
He said, “What do you mean by restructuring? Well, I don’t even like the word restructuring. I use, I prefer expressions like reconfiguration and decentralisation. Everybody can grasp that, decentralisation. And those who lead, recognise the necessity of it. They recognise the importance, almost the inevitability of it until they get into power, yes, that’s the difference.
“It’s about time, I think leaders stopped taking this nation for a ride, you know, we must decentralise. Security, you know, has become a burden to bear. From all corners of the nation, that is the crime.
“Decentralised so that government can come closer to the people, and productivity can really be manifested as a product of citizens, not simply as a manna from heaven.”
Congratulations to Professor Barth Nnaji and his crew for the successful completion of Aba Power project after many years of setbacks. This is a day of jubilation for Aba residents and people of the five southeast states. Governor Alex Otti and his officials deserve praise for their contribution to the completion of the Aba Power project. Aba is the heartland of Igbo industrialization. The prospect of 24 hours power every day in Aba portends good fortunes for the Southeast region. This is evidently a landmark event that elicits joy across the country.
But it is sad that some people want to turn a day of glory to a day of falsehood. Some with personal agenda against others would not allow Barth Nnaji, his team, Governor Otti and the people of Aba to rejoice on this important milestone. There was no need to use the happy occasion of the commission of the Aba Power and Geometry to peddle blatant falsehood about the project and the roles certain persons played.
Many people in Nigeria and outside the country have drawn my attention to an article going viral on social media where my person and character were scandalized in regard to events surrounding Aba Power project. I am sad at false statements published by the BusinessDay newspaper on Tuesday, February 27, 2024. The article written by a certain Lolade Akinmurele and titled “The dark side of the Aba power project” peddles falsehood about my person and my role as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
The article chronicles the history of the project and focuses on those the author believes frustrated it. The article narrates how then Vice President, Namadi Sambo, Emeka Offor, DG, BPE, Benjamin Dikki, Mohammed Bello Adoke, the Attorney General of the Federation, and Anyim Pius Anyim allegedly frustrated Bart Nnaji and Aba Power. I am not bothered with the tendentious narration of events. I am angry at the attempt of the author to rope me into the alleged conspiracy. He wrote “Offor, who was blocking the project, has Ayim Pius Anyim, secretary to the government, in his pocket, while Sam Amadi, the Chairman of and CEO of NERC, was beholding to Anyim”.
Interestingly, the author does not mention any action that I or NERC took or decision that we made that affected Bart Nnaji adversely and benefited Emeka Offor. To show that the inclusion of my name in an alleged conspiracy was a deliberate plot to tarnish my name, in the same article, he mentioned the positive action NERC under my leadership as Chairman and CEO took which was sympathetic to Bart Nnaji. For example, he states as follow: “A report by NERC, after a visit to the Geometry Power infrastructure in Aba, submitted a report that ‘it will be a disservice to the country in general and the company (GPAL and APL) in particular, after investing such a huge amount of money in power infrastructure, to be denied the term of the tripartite agreement. A disregard of the agreement will cast a doubt on the federal government privatization process and send a wrong signal to other prospective investors in the private sector”. How the head of an agency that wrote such a report be accused without any other contrary fact of conniving against the Aba Power project? Of course, the phrase “beholding to Anyim’ in that contest was added to tarnish my reputation. The manner my name was obliquely mentioned as a stooge of Pius Ayim is an effort to paint me as someone who is not as honest as he professes. It is a deliberate effort to stain my integrity and public service records.
I have always cherished my honest public service record in Nigeria. I have challenged anyone who has any evidence of financial or other improprieties against me during my five years stewardship in NERC to bring it forward. In fact, I have on numerous occasions asked to be thoroughly probed for any financial other improprieties. Since over 8 years I left office, no one has issued me a query for any wrongdoing. I am very proud of my character and reputation, and I will defend it with every ounce of energy and pint of blood. As someone who has built and maintained a character and reputation for truthfulness, honesty and integrity, and who cherishes greatly my record of unstained public service, I bear a responsibility to correct this falsehood and present the truth facts of my role in the Aba Power project saga.
It is important to note that even by the account of the author, neither NERC nor I played key role in the contract between Bart Nnaji and the federal government and the sale of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC). As a regulator, we were very clear that our role is regulatory and not transactional.
In the foregoing I make the following statements of facts.
1. The contract between Prof Barth Nnaji and the federal government over the Aba Power project was entered in 2005, five years before I became Chairman of NERC. The contract was a leasehold over some part of the Aba distribution area. The contract requires the federal government to allow Bart Nnaji to operate the two business units in Ariara and Osisioma in Aba, described as the ‘ring-fenced area’. Bart Nnaji also has a power plant to supply power to the ring-fenced area. The contract anticipates privatization and gives Aba Power the right of first refusal over the ring-fenced area whenever the federal government intends to sell the Enugu Distribution Company.
2. Prof Barth Nnaji was the Minister of Power from 2011 to 2013 when the process for privatization was completed. He was only removed just before the winners of the bid were announced. Throughout the relevant period of the privatization, Professor Barth Nnaji was Minister of Power and had de facto control of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) that executed the privatization process. He chaired the Presidential Task Force on Power and was key figure in the National Council on Privatization that made key decisions about privatization. The Director General of BPE, Bola Onaguruwa worked closely with him and generally under his control as Minister of Power.
3. I was appointed chairman of NERC in December 2010 after the federal government through the Ministry of Power and the BPE had rolled out the Presidential Action Plan for Power whose highpoint was privatization of the PHCN successor companies. NERC’s responsibility was to provide regulations to support the privatization. The most important components of regulatory support are the evaluation of the assets of the various companies to be privatized and the preparation of tariffs. The Minister of Power and the DG of BPE asked NERC to evaluate the assets of the 11 distribution companies (DISCOs), including the Enugu Disco. There was no request to separate the ring-fenced areas from Enugu Disco for separate evaluation. The reason being that the Ministry of Power and BPE intended to privatize the entire Enugu distribution area to whoever was the preferred bidder.
4. To the best of my knowledge, Prof Bart Nnaji as part of his business plan, intended to buy the Enugu Disco. There is nothing wrong about that. He is an entrepreneur whose entry into power sector was first as a private power producer in a deal to supply power to Abuja metropolis. Perhaps, based on the confidence that he would win the bid he neglected or forgot to separate the Aba Ring-Fenced area from the rest of Enugu Disco before he authorized the privatization of the entire Enugu Disco, including the Aba ring-fenced area. Later, when I confronted both DG BPE and Prof Bart Nnaji on why he failed to separate the Aba ‘ring-fenced’ area from Enugu Disco before authorizing privatization, they argued something to the effect that the Vice President opposed them. I have no proof of this fact.
5. Professor Barth Nnaji organized a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to bid for Enugu Disco, including the Aba ring-fenced area. He set up a special committee of BPE and Ministry of Power officials to evaluate the bids for the discos. After close of bid, his SPV, was adjudged the winner of the ENTIRE Enugu disco, including the Aba ring-fenced area.
6. At no time did I participate in evaluating or choosing the winner of the bid. A few NERC staff who participated in the evaluation process were mere observers because NERC as a regulator has no responsibility to sell private public enterprises.
7. After the evaluation and selection of Barth Nnaji’s firm as the preferred bidder, Chief Emeka Offor’s consortium petitioned on the ground of error. The Presidency empaneled a special committee chaired by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power. The Chairman of NERC, the DG of BPE and BPE consultants were member with a mandate to review the process. After reviewing the process, the committee agreed that Chief Emeka Offor’s consortium ought to win the bid after correcting the error. The NCP approved Chief Emeka Offor’s consortium as the winner of the bid and the preferred bidder.
8. After the declaration of Chief Emeka Offor’s consortium as the winner, Bola Onagoruwa, the DG of BPE, wrote to NERC to cut off Aba ring-fenced area from Enugu disco area and reevaluate it for Barth Nnaji to purchase. NERC rejected that request because it would violate regulatory due process. You cannot conclude a sale of a territory and after the buyer has fulfilled terms and conditions you alter the sale. While he was the Minister of Power and supervised the privatization, Professor Bart Nnaji had opportunity to demand the performance of the contract he had with federal government to be given the right of first rejection to purchase the Aba ring-fenced area before privatization. He did not do so, since he had reasonable expectations that he would purchase the entire Enugu disco. But unfortunately, he lost to Emeka Offor. NERC took the view that it would be a corrupt and unlawful action to alter the completed transaction to compensate Bart Nnaji in the circumstances in which he participated and lost out in the wholesome sale of Enugu disco.
9. As a responsible regulator, NERC sent a team of its technical staff to evaluate the work done by Geometry and Aba Power on the ground. The team reported highly of the efforts of Prof Bart Nnaji and his team. Based on this report, I wrote to the CEO of Enugu Distribution Company to implement the contract between the federal government and Bart Nnaji by allowing Aba Power ‘operationalize’ the contract to exercise authority over the Aba ring-fenced area as a lessee.
10. Bart Nnaji proceeded to court against the federal government for violating the lease agreement. Later Emeka Offor joined the suit. NERC was not part of the suit and had nothing to do with the contest between both parties.
11. There were many interventions at the presidency to settle the matter. At one of those meeting, President Jonathan asked me as Chairman of NERC to resolve it because I would follow due process. At NERC as a commission resolved to undertake a public hearing on the matter to ensure transparency and give all parties, including customers of the ring-fenced area to express their opinions. NERC advertised a date for a public hearing to conduct due process review of the dispute between Bart Nnaji’s company and Emeka Offor’s EEDC. Before the hearing, we got a letter from the Attorney General of the Federation asking us to hands-off as the matter was before the court.
12. The next time we had something to do with the matter was at the instance of the Buhari presidency. NERC had a regulatory meeting and issued an expert opinion that restates that Enugu disco should allow Aba Power to ‘operationalize’ the lease but as a lessee of Enugu disco and EEDC as lessor. This means that Aba Power will pay Enugu disco regulated fee for use of its network. Barth Nnaji rejected this view because he claimed he ought to be given full control of ring-fenced area by the federal government.
13. The last official engagement with the matter before I left office in December 2015 was a special meeting called by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Chief Olanipekun SAN led Bart Nnaji and Chief Ademola SAN led a director of Enugu disco for Emeka Offor for the meeting. The Vice President endorsed the NERC recommended option as the fair and legal approach to solve the problem.
14. It is important to note that throughout this period I never had any meeting with either Emeka Offor or Pius Anyim or any of Emeka’s Offor’s proxy in any form on the matter in dispute. There has been no moment in my multiple interactions with Anyim Pius Anyim as Secretary to Government of the Federation that he ever sought my opinion or offer any opinion to me about the dispute over Aba Power. Chief Emeka Offor never met me privately in my office or anywhere to discuss the matter with me.
15. As a matter of fact, it was Bart Nnaji who had made efforts to discuss the matter privately with me. First, he came to my office to discuss the matter with the highly revered Paschal Dozie. I told Mr. Dozie the truth as I always do that the only solution short of a judicial decision to the benefit of Bart Nnaji is to operationalize the lease so that Aba Power pays lease to Enugu disco and distribute power in the ring-fenced area. Bart Nnaji also came to my house with another of his friend and we had lunch, and I restated my position. So, if there is anyone who has had personal conversation with me over the Aba Power project it is neither Pius Anyim Pius nor Emeka Offor. It is actually Professor Bart Nnaji.
These are facts which can be crosschecked with records with NERC. I challenge anyone who doubts this narration of facts to trigger a Freedom of Information request and scrutinize the records of proceedings of NERC regulatory and management meetings. As I always state in matter of integrity and due process, if there is any evidence that I ever had a meeting with anyone or anyway took any action contrary to what I stated here I will voluntarily go to prison for any such offence.
Let me make it clear. One of the accusations against me is that I was fiercely independent as a regulator and did not listen to anyone outside NERC in regulatory decisions. Everyone in the power sector knows that I would rather resign than submit to the dictation of anyone outside NERC. I have said it before that I am personally responsible for any decision I made as NERC Chairman. I had in the past absolved President Jonathan or any other person from any liability for decisions made by NERC. No one pressured or forced me to take any action that is wrong or self-serving. I am proud that nothing has been found against me more than 8 years since I left office as the Chairman of NERC. Since then, I have not done any work for any company in the electricity sector. I removed myself from any benefit from the sector far beyond the 2 years that the Act requires me to recuse myself. I have not received one kobo from any company in the Nigerian electricity industry. I challenge anyone to contradict me on this claim.
The article tried to stain my reputation by suggesting that I worked on behalf of Anyim and Emeka Offor to delay or deny the completion of Aba Power project. That is an absolute falsehood as the facts above attest. It is an insult to suggest I was beholding to Ayim Pius Ayim in doing my work on Chairman of NERC. As records show, in all circumstances, I acted on my understanding of what the law and facts require of me as a regulator. It is ironic that it was the same Anyim Pius Anyim who once told me that President Jonathn once said ‘Please let everyone allow Sam do his work. For once, let us have a man of courage and integrity who would not succumb to anyone”. I am proud that I maintained that integrity throughout my tenure at NERC. I am sure Prof Bart Nnaji knows me so well. He is not and cannot be part of this blatant lie.
Whereas I need to correct the false statement against me, it should not obscure the great achievement of the moment. The commissioning of the Aba Power project is a testimony to the commitment and resilience of Prof Barth Nnaji. It is a good fortune for Governor Alex Otti and the people of Abia as they strive to make Aba the industrial heartland of Nigeria as it deserves to be. Nigeria now has an example of how to do it better and faster from the Aba Power project.
Let us embrace the learning without the falsehood. As for BusinessDay and its writer, they will have their day in court for libel.
Aba Power Ltd, a subsidiary of Geometric Power, will start to supply power from one of its three turbines to consumers in the Aba Ring-fenced Area this weekend rather than in two weeks as originally scheduled.
The company had scheduled supplies to commercial customers 13 days after commissioning in line with technical protocols, but, according to sources, its chairman, Professor Bart Nnaji who is a former Minister of Power, has directed the utility’s engineers to provide “power to the people without fail this weekend”.
The Geometric Power 188 Megawatt thermal plant and the Aba Power company to distribute electricity to nine of the 17 local government areas in Abia State were commissioned last Monday by Vice President Kassim Shettima on behalf of President Bola Tinubu in the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba, Abia, State, 24 hours after the first turbine was turned on.
“Non-critical technical procedures must be eliminated”, the Geometric Power founder told his team of local and foreign engineers, according to three highly placed officials who do not want their names because they were not authorised to speak to the media on this matter.
Officials of the National Control Centre (NCC) at Oshogbo in Osun State were billed to inspect the Geometric Power facility next week as one of the technical requirements, but they will now arrive this week, according to the sources who disclosed that “Nnaji, a globally recognized engineering professor, is pulling all the strings and using his network”.
When one of Geometric Power’s three turbines built by General Electric of the United States goes into commercial operations this weekend, it will supply 47MW, which is almost double the 25MW the Aba Metropolis and the environs currently receive from the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) through the national grid, explained Cliff Eneh, an energy consultant in Lagos who used to be a senior engineer with the National Power Authority (NEPA) after working for the Texas Power and Light Company in the United States.
The second turbine, said Engr Eneh, “will increase power supply to the Aba Ring-fenced Area to 94MW, “thereby meeting Aba energy requirements for now and stabilising power supply to the area.
“Nigeria needs a number of generation and distribution firms with state-of-the-art facilities like Geometric Power, which is an integrated electricity group because it has both generating and distributing subsidiaries”.
Neimeth Pharmaceuticals plc based in Lagos is one of the big firms which has announced the intention to relocate their manufacturing plants to Aba when electricity improves substantially in the industrial city.
Poor power supply, which leads to enormous and costly self -generation, accounts for substantial percentage of high production cost in Nigeria.
Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu disclosed at the commissioning of Geometric Power facilities on Monday that the Federal Government would be studying the performance of the Geometric Power group closely with a view to making it a business model for the development of the beleaguered Nigerian power sector.
The Anambra State Emergency Management Agency has confirmed the death of six people in the building collapse incident that occurred in the commercial city of Onitsha.
According to the agency, about 20 other people were rescued from the rubbles of the collapsed building. Most of them sustained various levels of injuries and are currently receiving treatment at a nearby hospital around the market.
“About six bodies recovered from the rubbles have been deposited at the morgue, while those who sustained varying degrees of injuries were taken to the nearby hospital for medical attention, rescue efforts are still ongoing,” SEMA officials said in a statement released on Tuesday.
The Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo has visited the Ochanja building site in the commercial city of Onitsha to inspect the extent of damages and cause of the incident.
While at the scene, the governor promised that he would ensure that the victims of the collapsed building receive justice.
The collapsed three-storey building still under construction, which was meant to serve as a market on completion, collapsed at about 8 pm on Monday, while some of the workers and traders were still in the building.
Soludo who was visibly angry at the scene said he was not aware that the construction of the building was going on at the market.
He said, “When investigations are completed, the developer, the Chairman of the market and every other person involved in the disaster will be prosecuted and jailed.
“The remaining building under construction by the same developer, near the collapsed one will be demolished immediately after rescue operations on the site have been completed.”
Soludo also stated that any construction in any market in Anambra State without his express approval will be demolished while vowing that every other existing building must pass through an integrity test.
Also, the Commissioner for Special Duties, Beverly Ikpeazu-Nkemdiche also mourned the victims of the collapse and assured the families that the state government would make sure that no one who was culpable in the disaster went unpunished.
The governor was joined on the visit by top government officials, where he ordered that more excavators be brought to the site of the collapse to help in the rescue operations.
As of the time of filing this report, rescue operations were still ongoing to search for more trapped victims in the rubble.
