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The revelation in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital by the chairman house committee on power and steel, Mr. Ndudi Godwin Elumelu during a courtesy call on the Borno State Governor Senator (Dr.) Ali Modu Sheriff, that over eight billion Naira (8 billion Naira) white elephant project was discovered in the state was shocking following the declaration, there has been a question mark on credibility of some top members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP who were said to have had some stretched marks in their romance with the Obasanjo’s government and probably would have had a tender in the said project for Borno and other neigbouring states. Moved by that revelation, I felt the urged to write this piece not only for the record, but for the fact that while the revelation did not only bring question on the credibility of the Borno PDP, it shows that the caliber of the so-called PDP stalwarts are not the sort of people capable of ruling Borno State even after Governor Ali sheriff might have left office in May 29, 2011.

It was reported in some National Dailies that over eight billion Naira was said to be missing and the project was also said not to to be in place. In his remarks during a courtesy call on Governor Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno State, the chairman house committee on power and steel said in continuation of the mandate given to them, following Honourable Mohammed Ali Ndume’s motion on January 31, 2008, where he prayed the house to look into the issue with regard to the huge sum of money expended on the power sector from 1999 to 2007 it became necessary to visit the state.

Hon. Elumelu told the governor that the house had about 120 members supporting the motion and the motion after much deliberation sought to and the resolution was reached mandating the House Committee on power and steel to do a through investigation and also have a long public hearing to ascertain the claim that huge sum of money were actually expended in the power sector from 1999 to 2007. He said after that resolution the committee commenced public hearing on March 11, 2008 and it ran for seven days.

According to him, during the public hearing a lot of issues came up, a lot of submissions were made by the contractors, consultants, ministries of power and steel, finance, DG due process, Accountant General, Auditor General, Attorney General of the Federation, CBN Governor and other MDs of different Agencies appeared before the committee. He said after the public hearing, the committee felt it will be unfair on them if they should use the submission made by those who appeared before the committee to just put down their recommendation and take it to the floor of the House without actually going round to ascertain the claims by those individuals that they are executing such projects.

Giving their findings on their tour of the North East zone, he said, “We are in Borno because there are some projects that have been alleged to be on going in Maiduguri and some other areas, one of such is the sub station 330, one 332 Kv sub stations which is being handled by channel engineering valued at the sum of 1.8 billion Naira which 733,714,905.42 Naira has been released, the contracts was awarded in March 2006 and the contractor was mobilized on June 29, 2006 that is to say that they put the money into fixed account and they were meant to complete the project 2007 but as I speak to you today from what we saw on site there was nothing to convince us that they were serious contractors. You can see the kind of atrocities that are being committed in our Nation by so called contractors in the name of executing the power projects. We also have another one 330KV line which should be from here to Damaturu through to Gombe valued at 5.7 billion Naira and so far, 4.2 billion Naira has been released to them, and is being handed by New Engineering as a matter of fact again the contract has done nothing.

While speaking on projects at the local government areas he told Governor Sheriff that, they also have gone round some of the areas where thay were told sub stations 1x7.5MPA substation at NTA Maiduguri was situated and another one at Biu the same 1x7.5MPA, that of Bama 1.x7.5MPA, and still the one at Lassa, all valued at the cost of 1.4 billion Naira. He said the contractors were claiming that they have not been mobilized but he said the committee has seen instances where they claimed that and when the committee checked its records they would find out that they have been paid. For those who they could not have ascertained from their records whether or not they have been paid, he said when the committee gets back to Abuja they will cross check with Accountant General and CBN and if they found anything contrary they will not be able to accept their own submission that they have not been mobilized. He said those projects they are claiming again was supposed to be on-going projects in Borno state.

“We have others records of 1.21billion Naira, which 540 million Naira has been released 507 million Naira is yet to be paid but because of their claim that they have done it we went ahead my committee and I went ahead to include that they have been utilized under 2006 budget, the president has signed it so invariably it would have been that they will be receiving the money for projects not done. Those project were to be at Shuwari, okko, Tampul, Bama Sugmutari, Yau Lawanti, Dala-alamdari, Dipchari, Baha, Mikan, Kuva, Ngasam, Geidamn, Kida, Shaffa, Humari, Abadam, Gamadadi Bitta, Finadam, Ndirauna, and Shaltikam.

While giving his response Governor Ali Sheriff said a lot of money has been sunk into power sector in the country, therefore, with this on-going probe, the committee is doing Nigerians proud; adding that Nigeria’s major problem today is the power sector, which without nothing meaningful is happening especially for business operators. He said the intervention by the committee to tell the world that so much money has been expended but fall into the hands of bandits is a welcome one, therefore, he urged the committee to continue in the good step towards bringing those contractors to book.

Said he, “Every Government will be blamed that nothing has been done and nothing has come out, but real money has come out and this people took it and sat on it and their conscience is telling them nothing. I am sure with this exercise nobody will take public fund and keep it for himself because there is no escape route for such people. Anybody given public fund to work with should make sure that such work is done.”

Expressing shock the governor said, “Any time we give statement in the state, we say that there is no Federal Government presence in our state at all. Even as a Governor, I am hearing this for the first time that over N5billion has been spent in my state since my assumption in office. All this while my assumption is that Federal Government has not done any job in our state and that has always been our statement. I am saying this with all conviction because I have not seen anything. Now you are telling us that N4billion was paid to a contractor for a certain project but nothing has been done, it would have been better if the ministries responsible could have communicated to the state government that we are doing ABC projects in your state so that our commissioner in charge will be writing periodic report to inform them what is happening to their projects, but this is not done, we don’t know therefore, we will always say there is nothing taking place in our state.”

The situation in Borno today is that worried by that revelation, citizens of the State have been asking the questions, that since All Nigeria People’s Party, ANPP is not the government at the centre, the question of whether some ANPP members were involved should not be raised since there is no way as far as politics in Nigeria is concerned that a member or some top members of the ANPP would be given such contract especially for Borno State where ANPP is the ruling party.

According to some people there is also no way that such a contract would be given that some top membership of the Peoples Democratic party, PDP would not be involved or rather benefit from such gesture. Therefore, the questions should centre on PDP and its membership in the state.

Abdulsalam writes from Maiduguri