Senate hints on ‘planned reversal’ of power sector privatisation

Gabriel Suswam, Chairman, Senate Committee on Power says the senate has no plans to reverse the privatisation of the power sector.

He spoke on Monday during the committee’s oversight visit to some government structures being occupied by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC).

Suswam said, on the contrary, the Senate supports government privatisation of the industry.

He said “teething problems” will not be a reason for a review

The lawmaker said the Senate was only interested in enhanced performance to create efficiency.

“Unfortunately, the process itself started on a faulty note. Some of the parameters used were a bit faulty so the sector has been faced with problems that ordinarily would have been avoidable.”

The former Benue governor said the legislature is trying to identify the core challenges in order to help the executives in addressing them.

“This is why we are here to see what we have been told by the Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company (NELMCO)”.

Suswam recalled that NELMCO told the committee that they handed over some assets to AEDC when the company was incorporated and the committee needed to be sure it was true.

“Here are assets of the government and it is being occupied by AEDC which is a private company and we are wondering why they are occupying government property.

“The managing director has told us they are supposed to be paying rent but because the property has been advertised for sale, they also have the right of first refusal.”

He said AEDC has accepted that the building belongs to the government and that they are tenants until when they are able to procure it if they win the bid.