Indications emerged on Tuesday that President Muhammadu Buhari may set up a panel of enquiry to probe the spending of $16bn on power project during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The president was speaking at the Presidential Villa in Abuja while receiving the Buhari Support Organization led by the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Ahmed Ali.
Though Buhari did not mention Obasanjo’s name, he, however, asked: “where was the power after a former president claimed to have spent $16bn on the project?”.
Recall that the House of Representatives had in 2008 described $16 billion spent on power by Obasanjo’s government as colossal waste, blaming it on “poor budget planning and a lack of proper oversight by relevant bodies.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project had also in 2016 urged the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Water Samuel Onnoghen, to immediately appoint an independent counsel to investigate allegations of corruption in the spending of $16 billion on electricity by Obasanjo’s government.
Details later…