Stakeholders in the power sector have warned that the flow of investments into the power sector may suffer setback if diligence is lacking in the way the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is dealing with perceived cases of fraud or corruption in the sector.
EFCC, they advise, should do its job diligently and desist from sensationalism and media trials that have far-reaching negative effects and negative perceptions indexes on investments in the Nigerian Electricity Sector/Power Sector Value Chain.
They say the planned sales of power plants by the government may suffer setbacks because of the actions of EFCC in recent time, especially the most recent one in which some officers of Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) were allegedly clamped into detention over a contract the commission alleged the money had been diverted.
But industry sources say the money was duly paid by NDPHC to the consultants working for it for them to give to the people the money is directly meant for.
According to them, investments in the country are already endangered because of government actions, adding that the situation can further be compounded by actions of the EFCC if care is not taken.
The stakeholders, however, say they are not opposed to arrest and prosecution of people who go against the law by committing one crime or the other, but that thorough investigation must have been seen to be carried out to ascertain that they are culpable.
The officials of NIPP/NDPHC were said to have on their own volition went to the EFCC headquarters to submit detailed reports/documents as part of the renewed probe of the power sector and only for them to be detained.
Ayodele Oni, a Lagos-based lawyer and a stakeholder in the power sector, told BusinessDay that any country there was no rule of law international investors always avoid it.
There is problem if there is no rule of law, and it is worse if the action of the agency is viewed from the point that those on trial are members of the opposition party, Oni said.
According to Oni, were the money stolen or diverted, or spent on the projects they are meant to be used for? He said just as the previous administration spent so much but achieved very little in the power sector, so also the present government had spent a lot of money without realising any meaningful result yet.
“Investment in the power sector has to be consistent for a long time before we would be able to get a robust energy sector,” he said.
Kola Olubiyo, president, Nigerian Consumer Protection, said although the EFCC under Ibrahim Magu had achieved a lot in terms of prosecutions and recoveries, it should however be diligent in it work before engaging in media trials of the people it arrest.
Any action that is perceived by investors as taking not according to the rule of law could inhibit the flow of foreign direct investment into the power sector, Olubiyo said.
He advised the EFCC to be diligent in it operations.
Even though such action by the commission is not new in the country, but investors would be constrained to come in to invest, Rahila Thomas, a director of EMRC, said.
She said the government had been trying to sell about 10 power plants but had been finding it difficult to sell, adding that the latest action against the NDPHC by the EFCC would definitely make intending investors or buyers hold back for now.
