Ndudi Elumelu, who headed the House Committee on power in 2007, has said powerful Nigerians in official circles made sure Nigeria’s power sector remains comatose.

Trillions of Naira after, Nigeria is only able to generate a paltry 4,500mw of electricity and Elumelu says the rip off has an official seal.

“For now, I won’t mention names, but the truth is that most Nigerians that we respect because of what they have attained in life, destroyed the power sector.”

Elumelu added that “a situation where government would spend $1.545 billion on nine gas turbines, when 18 of same equipment were bought for $404 million within a short period was evil and a rape of the nation’s economy”.

He said sums for the procurement of power equipment were often over inflated, much to the consternation of the lawmakers who probed the sector in the 6th assembly.

“From Kubwa to Katampe sub-station in Abuja, there’s a transmission line. When we checked the cost of the line, we found that it was over-inflated. Then another mind-boggling discovery was made where 18 turbines were procured for $404 million from General Electric.

“Then when additional nine turbines were needed, they now spent $1.545 billion on them.

“The excuse they gave for such an unpardonable sin was that an African country had paid earlier for the nine turbines hence the astronomical increase of over $600m.

“This is just one of so many terrible sins committed by our powerful men in high places.

“In the course of doing our investigation, we traveled to Brazil for a comparative assessment of public investment in electricity and we found out that what they spent to achieve stable electricity was far less than what we had spent, but had nothing to show for it.

“In Brazil, Geometric Power told me that they spent $12 billion to generate 12,000 Megawatts and it is working very well. At that time Nigerian government had already spent close to $16 billion to generate between 2,500 to 3,000 Megawatts of electricity”.

Elumelu commended the national assembly for commencing the probe of the sleazy power sector all over again, but alerted Nigerians that the probe panel may soon be taken over by the cabal.

“Power sector probe requires lots of commitment and dedication for one to get out of it unhurt. So I am happy that the Senate came up again with it because it is quite disheartening to see that with what has been expended on the sector, we are still battling to generate just about 3,500 Megawatts of electricity.

“What they have set out to do is very commendable given the anti corruption drive of the current administration, but don’t be surprised if you also find out that some of the people on the committee are even sponsored by these powerful people. So it is a highly organized cabal which runs these things.”