The Deputy Chairman, Senate Committee on Power Sen. Chris Ngige, says the Senate in 2013, will probe the implementation of the N262 billion supplementary budget to ensure fuel availability.
He made the disclosure at a news briefing in Awka on Friday.
?The senator noted that in spite of the N262 billion supplementary budget, there were still long queues at filling stations.
Ngige expressed concern that President Goodluck Jonathan had yet to appoint a new minister for the power ministry.
“I had expected that with the exit of former Power Minister, Prof. Barth Nnaji, about the middle of the year, a replacement would have been named by President Goodluck Jonathan given the precarious situation in the power sector.
?“Ordinarily, the president can decide to run the power ministry without a substantive minister even when there is a minister of state on ground,” Ngige said.
He said that the leaders of thought from the South-East zone under the auspices of Ohaneze-Ndigbo and the South East zonal caucus had met the president on the issue.
?He disclosed that the meeting stressed the need for the president to appoint the next minister of power from the South- East zone According to him, Nigerians will enjoy improved power supply as from 2013.
Ngige said that efforts were in top gear to boost power generation, transmission and distribution across the country.
He noted that most of the power generating sub-stations had been sited far away from their sources of gas supply, saying that the long distance between the sub-stations and their sources of gas supply was a major problem.
?He added that the result was the increasing cost of distribution and safe guarding laid pipes against vandalism.
The senator explained that the 2013 fiscal budget and part of the 2012 budget would accommodate capital projects, especially for upgrading of transmission stations to ensure availability of power.
“Also as part of efforts to boost electricity supply next year, studies have commenced on the possibility of having coal powered plants in parts of the country with large coal deposits.’’ he said.
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