The Senate has begun to make moves to protect the country from incurring further financial wastes from the agreements signed by the Federal Government and some power generation firms in 2015.
The red chamber after an exhaustive deliberation on the report of its committee on power decided to set up a powerful team of local and international legal experts to review the agreements.
The Chairman of the Power Committee, Senator Gabriel Suswam, while presenting the report said the agreement was signed between 2016 and 2017 by the present administration.
He lamented that the country was currently losing $30m every month to the firms for power that Nigerians were not necessarily getting.
Suswan explained that the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari signed power agreements with a firm called Azura to generate 450 megawatts of electricity.
He said, “The implication of the agreement is that even if we are unable to take that 450 megawatts, we will still pay full price for that 450 megawatts and that is what has been happening. The agreement is called take or pay.
“The same thing for the ACU gas which is a gas agreement signed with Calabar Power Plant and it is guaranteed by the World Bank.”
He added, “Azura have about three generators. If only one is producing, it is not their fault; it is because TCN cannot evacuate the power.
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“They are generating; they are ready to give power but unfortunately, we are not prepared. We signed that agreement and so if they can only give 100MW, we pay for the full 450MW; the same thing for ACU gas.
“The way we are so tied is that the danger in Azura and ACU gas is that if we default, they can draw down about $1.2bn immediately from our foreign reserve.”
The Senate passed a resolution in support of Suswan’s panel’s recommendations and asked the relevant committees to start work immediately.
Suswam, who addressed journalists after the plenary said the agreements may be renegotiated after assessing the advice of the legal experts.
