By Christiana Ekpa
The House of Representatives, Thursday directed the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to stop the procurement process of selling the five Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) power generating plants until due process is strictly adhered.
The House further cautioned the Director General of BPE to desist from any act to facilitate the sales of the five generation power plants until duly authorised by the shareholders in a formal meeting as stipulated by the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020.
The power plants are at Calabar (Cross River State), Ihorbor (Edo State), Olorunsigbo, Omotosho and Geregu, in Kogi State.
These resolutions was sequel to adoption of a motion of urgent public importance moved by Magaji Aliyu, chairman of the House committee on power Thursday at plenary.
Debating the motion, Magaji said the National Council on Privatisation and Board of Directors of the NDPHC in collaboration with BPE through a request for expression of interest reported by BusinessDay of Thursday, May 6, 2021 resolved to sale the five power plants.
He said the plants were constructed under the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) with gross installed capacities at 150 condition -SO6MW, 507MW, 634MW, 513MW and 754MW respectively to support the delivery of core mandate of NDPHC to ensure the stability of Nigeria’s power sector.
The lawmaker said: “the House is aware that the share holding of the (NDPHC) is held by the Federal Government 47%, States and Local Governments, 53% while the board has Vice President as the Chairman, 6 State governors each representing one of the six (6) Geo-Political Zones and four Federal Ministers of Justice, Finance, Power and State Petroleum.
“Recall that in 2013,the same attempt to sale the power generation plants 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.
“Recall further that the attention of Board of Directors at its 46th meetin gon 234 April, 202 was drawn to the approval of NCP dated 24th April, 2021 to proceed with the sale of the five (5) NIIP electricity generation plants to fund the Federal government budget deficit due to the impact of the covid – 19 pandemic on the nations economy.
“Worried that the Federal Government insists to proceed with the sale of these assets despite the fact that the consent of the other shareholders states and local governments, the appropriate legal framework /policy to apply relating to the procurement or disposal of shares or assets by the Federal Government or its agencies giving the joint shareholding of the State and Local government have not been resolved
“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.
“Informed that the National Economic Council on December 24th, 2019 at its 100th meeting recommended that the sale of NDPHC’s assets be discouraged as DISCO’s are dysfunctional while the account of the company has to be properly audited to ensure the best corporate governance practice as a prelude to considering the divestment.
“Regret that the interest of the shareholders and national economy will be jeopardised if urgent action is not taken to prevent the BPE from selling the assets under irregular procurement process.”
