The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has broken his silence regarding allegation that he and officials of Ministry of Power diverted 350 million dollars.
Read also: Fashola denies alleged N166bn contract scam
The Senate had accused Fashola of diverting 350 million dollars from the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), and resolved to summon him.
The Senate Committee on Public Account had also invited the minister to provide a detailed account of revenue expended on Afam fast power project.
Denying the allegation, Fashola in a statement entitled: “Before Perception Becomes Reality,“ he released on Friday, the minister wrote: “The sum and substance of the allegations to which the ministry will provide full, factual and detailed response when formally invited are that:
“ An amount in the region of 350 million dollars being part of a 1 billion dollars Eurobond facility taken in 2013 has gone missing or has been diverted.
“That the ministry had procured a contract for Afam fast power and paid 26 million dollars or thereabout for it.
“With all emphasis, I state that there is no factual basis for the allegations. “The ministry, my staff and I have done nothing wrong and we will collaborate fully with the investigating committee when called upon.
“I wasn’t a minister in 2013, and that when government raises a debt like the Eurobond, it is the Debt Management Office that manages the debt and not the ministry.“
He said that NSIA had on Monday, Nov 6, issued a statement explaining that the money was not missing.
Fashola said the NSIA had on November 6, issued a statement wherein it stated that the 350 million dollars had been invested and that interest had even accrued on the money.
Speaking on the Afam fast power project, the minister said: “The sum and substance of it is that, it was an investment by the General Electric, a globally reputed Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), to invest in our country and support our effort to get good quick power under our roadmap of incremental, steady and uninterrupted power.
“They offered to do this by providing Nigeria with mobile turbines of 600MW if we could find a location with gas and transmission evacuation infrastructure.
“The Afam power station fitted because it had transmission and evacuation facilities but all its turbines had been virtually run down.
“The investment was contingent on paying 27.9 million dollars, which was 15 per cent of 8 units of 30MW turbines each totalling 240MW valued at about 186.6 million dollars.
“This payment of 27.9 million dollars was made without breaching any law.“
