Senate expresses reservation on Mambila power project

The Senate on Tuesday expressed reservation over the actualisation of the Mambila power project, describing it as a mirage.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Sen.Gabriel Susuwan(PDP-Benue) said this at the 2023 budget defence of government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) under the Ministry of Power in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said that the project was a mirage as far as National Assembly was concern because money has been budgeted for many years and there was nothing on ground .

He said the initial scope of the project was slightly about 3,000 megawatts, saying that there were issues.

“We were told that it was going to be re-scoped, even the re-scoping of the project has not been done.

“So in essence, it means that there is no project that is on ground like Mambilla. It is all about talks and lips service, that is why we are concern about the money that is provided for consultancy and the money used for the training of staff that supposed to be utilised if Mambilla was in place.

” Why provide monies all this years when nothing actually is on ground,”he said.

He said thst his committee has directed the Minister of Power to ask the permanent secretary and other desk officers to appear before it to explain how the yearly budgetary allocations for Mambila has been utilised.

“Since 2017, monies has been provided for Mambila but nothing has done on the project in spite of the pressure we have been mounting on federal government.

” It is clear that the Mambilla power project will not be able to start before the end of this administration,” he said.

The Minister of Power, Mr Abubakar Aliyu said the ministry met with stakeholders and all issues of concern have been resolved adding that the litigation on the project was the only problem hampering its commencement.

“Regarding Mambilla, we have met with stakeholders and we are resolving the situation.

“It has something to do with litigation, there is nothing going on as regarding moving to site.

” The 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.

“I don’t think the investor will bring his money where there is encumbrance,”he said.

(NAN)