Posted by By JAMES OJO, Abuja on
Former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, will today face the House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel probing the $16billion spent on power reform without commensurate result by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
Former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, will today face the House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel probing the $16billion spent on power reform without commensurate result by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
Okonjo-Iweala, now with the World Bank, is expected to provide more insight into how much was committed to revive the power sector when she held sway as Finance minister.
The Ndudi Elumelu-led committee had, during the public hearing on the probe, invited the former Finance minister to shed light on how much was spent by Obasanjo on the power sector.
Member of the committee, Hon Patrick Obayiagbon, confirmed the receipt of Mrs Okonjo-Iweala's letter stating her readiness to appear before the committee.
Okonjo-Iweala's lawyer had earlier written the committee that she was not personally invited to appear before the committee and that she was busy with her scheduled outside the country.
The committee Chairman, Hon Ndudi Elumelu, faulted the argument of the lawyer, saying that nobody was personally invited, as every Nigerian and other foreigners, who appeared before the committee were invited through the publication made in selected Nigerian newspapers.
Obayiagbon saida fter Okonjo-Iweala's appearance, the work of the committee would continue next week with visit to project sites of all power projects, to ascertain claims by the contractors on the level of work done, with the view to finding out if commensurate with the money collected so far.
The visit to the project sites, he added, would take about three weeks, which implies that preliminary reports on the committee on the probe would not be ready until the end of April.
'You will appreciate the gargantuan work before the committee.
We have a heap of documents to wade through. We have volumes of testimonies to dissect. We have figures to compute. One thing that is certain is the assurance that Nigerians would be proud of the report when it is ready," he said.
Obayiagbon also assured Nigerians that nobody would be spared from being asked questions if the need arose, as it had become impossible to shield any body from the energy scam.