Endemic Corruption Responsible For Incessant Power Grid Collapse- EFCC Boss

The endemic corruption in the Nigerian power sector is responsible for the incessant power grid collapse in the country, Ola Olukoyedee, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Chairman has said.

Olukoyede told the House of Representatives Committtee on Financial Crimes on Tuesday during a hearing that Nigerians will ‘shed tears’ if they find out the deep-seated corruption that has bedeviled the sector for years.

The chairman of the anti- graft agency spoke amidst worries by electricity customers over the incessant power grid collapse in the country.

According to checks by the magazine, the national grid has collapsed at least 10 times since the beginning of the year, even as analysts in the sector insist that a permanent solution has yet to be found to the problem.

The latest of such collapse was last Tuesday when the grid went off again amidst serious concerns among electricity consumers in the country whose businesses are affected when such situations occurred.

Speaking to the lawmakers yesterday, Olukoyede stated that the corruption in the sector is capable of bringing people to tears.

He explained that contractors, executing projects in the sector are seriously shortchanging the country by purchasing inferiors materials which they supply as original, after receiving billions for such contracts

Olukoyede said, “As we speak, we are grappling with electricity. If you see some of the investigations we are carrying out within the power sector, you will shed tears.

“Every time you see the thing tripping off, the thing gets burnt, and all of that, it falters and it collapses. It’s part of our problems.”

Not a few Nigerians insist that the power sector in the country is where corruption is most endemic, considering the huge funds that have been allocated to the sector for years without tangible results.

Those familiar with the sector informed the magazine that successive administrations in the country used it as a cash cow, where funds are siphoned for purposes other than providing stable electricity for the people in the country.

The situation, according to them, have left a huge financial gap, forcing successive administrations to allocate more funds to the sector. In spite of the billions of dollars that have been allocated to the sector for decades, there is nothing to show for it.

Lamenting the problems in the sector recently, the ministry of Power Adebayo Adelabu said the sector will require $10 billion annually to achieve any meaningful turn around.

“For this sector to be revived, the government needs to spend nothing less than 10 billion dollars every year for 10 years, because of the infrastructure requirements for stability in the sector, but the government cannot afford to do that, it must make the sector attractive to investors and to lenders. The business must be attractive, there must be commercial pricing”, Adelabu said.