The House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee investigating Nigeria’s power sector reforms and expenditure from 2007 to 2024 has queried Azura-Edo Power Plant over the ₦18 billion it received from the Federal Government through the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) within a six-month period in 2023.
During the resumed investigative hearing in Abuja, on Monday, the Chairman of the committee, Hon Almustapha Aliyu, demanded clarification after discovering that Azura failed to account for the funds in its submission.
Official documents before the panel show that between January and June 2023, Azura received over ₦18 billion in excess tariff payments and other financial settlements from NBET, which fall under the scope of the ongoing probe into public expenditure on the power sector. Azura’s Head of Legal and Compliance, Akeem Olabende, who represented the company, acknowledged that the firm did not submit documents covering the payments.
He confirmed that the company also omitted information related to budgetary allocations, loans, grants, bank settlements and other financial inflows linked to federal power-sector spending. In a related development, the committee gave the Managing Director of Yola Electric Distribution Company, Engr. Abdulrahman Isa, a new date to defend the company’s submissions.
