Oyo Chief Judge, Justice Munta Abimbola, has constituted a seven-man panel to investigate the allegations levelled against the deputy governor, Engr. Rauf Olaniyan, by the House of Assembly.
The panel was constituted in pursuant to the resolution of the House of Assembly, and as requested by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Adebo Ogundoyin, in a letter dated July 6, 2022.
The Speaker had in the letter requested the constitution of the panel by the virtue of power conferred on the Chief Judge by section 188 (5) of the 1999 constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The delay in the inauguration of the members of the panel was due to the pending suit initiated by Olaniyan against the impeachment process, which judgement was delivered on Thursday, by Justice Ladiran Akintola, who dismissed the suit.
Members of the seven-man panel are :Chief Kayode Christopher (Chairman); Arc. Adebisi Soyombo; Chief Lawal Adekunle Dauda; Princess Olanike Olusegun; Rev Fr. Patrick Ademola; Chief Mrs Wuraola Adepoju (JP); and Alh. Tirimisiyu Akewusola Badmus.
The panel will investigate the allegations against the deputy governor as provided under section 188(5) of the constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Justice Abimbola described members of the panel as people of unquestionable integrity, not being members of any public service, legislative house or political parties.
He implored members of the panel to have the fear of God, act in accordance with their conscience and to be fair and just in the discharge of their duties.
POWER
Planned Sale Of 5 NIPP Power Plants National Security Risk-Group
The Nigeria Consumer Protection Network,has picked holes in the proposed sales of six Nigerian Independent Power Projects power plants to new investors by the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE.
It said attempt by the agency to sale the power plants is a national security risk,disservice to Nigerians and would do collateral damage to the nation’s power sector.
Kunle Olubiyo,president of the group,who conveyed his displeasure to the planned auction of the assets in a statement made available to PREMIUM NEWS,said the companies bidding for the plants have no requisite capacity to manage same with a view to guaranteeing uninterrupted electricity for Nigerians.
The BPE had last week pre-qualified sixteen firms for the privatisation of five National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs) in the country.
Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Alex A. Okoh has announced this at the Investor Pre-bid Conference for the privatisation of the five NIPP plants namely:Geregu, Omotosho,Olorunsogo, Calabar and Benin-Ihovbor
He listed the 16 pre-qualified bidders as: Mota-Engil Nig, Amperion Power, Sifax Energy, Pacific Energy Company Ltd and Globeleq Africa Limited.
The others are: Geoplex Drillteq Limited, Asfalizo Acquisition Ltd, Launderhill PJB, Lauderhill Tata, Unicorn Power Genco Ltd, Connaught Energy Services Ltd, ENL Consortium Ltd, Ardova Plc, Central Electric and Utilities Ltd, North South Power Consortium and Quantum Megawatt Consortium.
But,Olubiyo described the pre-qualified companies as mushroom business
entitles with neither records of cognate experiences,nor business management services experiences in power generation business for a minimum of 10 – 15 years .i
He added:”The present unholy and unsavoury attempts to sell the 6 NIPPs power plants to political cronies,predetermined preferred
bidders,is in unequivocal terms a dissrvice to Nigerian electricity sector ,undermines national security parameters and energy economics interfaces with national security stability in the prevailing circumstances.
“We are not saying that the Plants would not be sold at the appropriate prices and time in the future but not now , when Nigeria is seriously battling with challenges of
deliberate load rejection by the distribution companies ,deliberate low energy dispatch by the Transmission Company of Nigeria’s Load Dispatch Managers from various Energy Load Dispatch Centers / National Control Center ( NCC ) Oshogbo , Osun State
“The desperate desires of Bureau of Public Enterprises to by all means sell the
6 NIPP / NDPHC Power Plants to already tactically selected cronies in a
pre-election year and sadly the proceed of such which would be treated as a sendforth monetary cash-out by political office holders
at the 3 tiers of government .The proceeds from the sales would simply be shared as an economic windfalls and largesse as against the original intentions of keeping such in a specially designed NIPP / NDPHC Projects Financing Revolving Funds
“Ordinarily, such proceeds from Sales of critical assets should have been re- channelled or plough back into an Escrow Bank Account or NIPP/ NDPHC Projects Financing & Project’s Business Continuity Projects Revolving Funds in the face of paucity of funds and scarcely available national resources.Nigeria is increasingly becoming a country of sharing formula .
“The six NIPP owed plants that is being earmarked for sales would still attempt to deliver to the national power grid,not off grid and they would require some levels of
PPAs and vesting contracts from Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc .At the moment, NIPP/ NDPHC has some already signed bilateral contracts for take or pay deal for gas supply agreement. So at any time the
Privately owned power plants refuse to generate or at any time the market players upstream attempted to hold the nation Nigeria to ransom, NIPP / NDPHC gas-fired power plants will as energy security backups.
“What is playing out now in the attempt by
BPE to sell by all means at the wrong time the
six critical NIPP / NDPHC gas fired power plants just like the prodigal son mentality.If we allow this trend to be sustained ,one day , we may not even have a family roof over our head as the BPE may decide to sell the roof over our heads and the Family House our common inheritance leaving all of us homeless , endangered and exposed to economic night marauders
“If there is any thing we all need to do is to join hands with experts and professionals like minded people within and outside the power sector to come with a comprehensive mechanism to addressing the decline in growth being witnessed in the areas of universal energy security,decline in energy load dispatch by TCN,decline in generation capacity,decline in energy load utilisation by the DisCos”
