Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, has disclosed that contractors under the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) are owed the sum of N3.4 billion.
?
He also disclosed that about 1,946 projects, being carried out by the REA which are at different levels of completion have been abandoned.
?
The minister made this disclosure recently when a delegation of political, community and traditional leaders from the 10 towns in Ihiala Local Government Area in Anambra State, visited him in his office, in Abuja.
?
“It is painful to listen to or read accounts of rural electrification contractors who have sold their houses or died as a result of this huge debt owed them over a long period,” the minister stated.
?
Nnaji who described the situation as unacceptable, explained why the federal government was bringing back the Rural Electrification Agency after two years of being in limbo, stressing that the condition which made the creation of REA inevitable was still largely there.
?
This belief he noted, explains the ongoing power sector reform which has, since its launch last year, enjoyed the support of Nigerians and the international community.
?
He said the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration regards electricity as a basic right of the Nigerian people, adding, “I should think it is understandable why we have increased the vote for the Rural Electrification Agency in our budgetary proposal for the 2012 financial year.”
?
“The 1,946 projects being carried out by the REA are at different levels of completion and, therefore, should not be abandoned,” he said.
?
It would be recalled that attempt by the federal government to ensure rural electrification in 2009, was stalled following an alleged N5.2billion fraud involving some National Assembly members and some top bureaucrats in the Ministry of Power.
?
Earlier, leader of the delegation, Mr Fort Dike, who is a member of the House of Representatives, implored the minister to improve power supply in his constituency which he said is the largest Local Government Area in Nigeria.
?
“My constituency is the location of the biggest starch producing factory in West Africa, yet we receive power supply for only about two hours in two weeks,” Dike said.
?