The Senate yesterday opened fresh investigation into the sale of 10 National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

Adopting a three-prayer motion moved by Mohammed Hassan (PDP, Yobe South), the Senate directed its committees on Power and Privatisation to look into the sale processes.

The Senate thereafter directed the investigation into preparation, execution and implementation of the management contract for Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

Also, the Senate ordered investigation of the roles of all persons involved in these matters and to ascertain the relevance of BPE on the board of Distribution Companies of Nigeria (Discos).

In a comment before putting the motion to vote, President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, wondered about how a government agency would decide to wave $3 billion, and sell the projects for $5 billion after an over $8 billion investment.

The Federal Government had invested over $8.2 billion in the 10 power projects which were later sold for $5.8 billion in 2014.

Saraki stressed that the Senate must set example with any agency of government that encouraged revenue leakages, especially at this time of dwindling revenue.

“The privatization of some of the companies must be properly investigated. You wonder how an agency, sitting somewhere, can on its own, write off over $3 billion without any referral to anybody.

“It is mind-boggling, even if you are going to take a decision like that, there must be some level of consultation and collective responsibility.

“We cannot be carrying out some of these investigations and not bring them to conclusion, we must bring them to conclusion and see that actions are taken.

“On this matter, we must make an example, all these are our responsibilities and we must see some of these through. When we resume from plenary, the report of the committee must be given priority,” he said.

He said that with the power project probe, the Senate seemed to just be waking up to its responsibility. He urged all to take the investigation seriously and show more commitment.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriation, Danjuma Goje, while making contributions to debate on the motion said that the entire privatization process seemed to be a failure.

He explained that the idea was to inject the private sector to make power more stable, while expressing his displeasure that there was no difference between the pre-privatisation and post-privatisation era.