Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Thursday tasked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to arrest and probe all Ministers who have been in charge of the Federal ministry of Power from 2017 till date over the hogwash and bogus $6 billion Mambilla Project which has not been achieved despite the outrageous amount spent on the project.
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HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement said all those involved in the misappropriation of funds for the White Elephant project which has not been realised for years must be brought to account for every stolen penny.
Recall that the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, this week, said the EFCC is currently investigating the $6bn Mambilla Power Project despite the legal tussle on it.
The Minister, who spoke when he appeared before the Joint National Assembly Committee on Power to defend 2023 budget, said, “EFCC has stepped into the matter and we have given them information about it, we have given them history of the power project, our lawyers have interfaced with the anti-graft agency, unless we are able to pull out of litigation, we can’t do anything.”
Commenting on the issue, Onwubiko said: “Like many White Elephant projects, the Mambilla power project has become another conduit pipe for grand corruption. The 3,050 MW hydroelectric power project in Kakara village, in Taraba State, has now become one of the poster failures of the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigerians won’t forget the deception of how the President made bogus promises to come into office in 2015.
“Nigeria’s power generation is still far below 5,000MW while the National Grid continues to collapse multiple times only in 2022, subjecting over 200 million Nigerians to gross darkness and business to blackouts. Electricity bills have jumped by over 100 percent despite the unavailable power, forcing entrepreneurs out of businesses and more into the poverty pool.
“HURIWA demands the swift arrest of all Power Ministers from 2017 and Directors accused of misappropriation in the Mambilla project; as well as contractors collecting funds and disappearing into thin air, having cronies and proxies and godfathers in high places in government.
“It is unfortunate that the Mambilla project, like the Ajaokuta Steel Company, remains a White Elephant project with horns that have not been confronted or overcome. Like Mambilla, the Buhari regime allocated N20.4 billion to the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited from 2016 to 2021, despite the company’s idleness and failure to produce a single iron. What corruption in broad day light! What shenanigan! The EFCC must investigate these grafts!”
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