The Nigeria Consumer Protection Network (NCPN) has opposed the planned sale of five National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) plants, describing the move as a national security risk.
In a statement issued by the President of NCPN, Kunle Olubiyo, on Monday, the group urged the Special House of Representatives Joint Committees meeting this week to discourage the action. The lawmakers are probing the proposed sale of the five NIPP plants by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
NCPN said: “Any such action is self-serving and, at very best, a chronic form of national assets stripping coming at a time when the current President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is already on the verge of completing its tenure.”
It also said it is already an election year and the proceeds could be diverted by cronies rather than a reinvestment in the power sector by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC).
BPE had recently pre-qualified 16 firms for the privatisation of five NIPP plants comprising Geregu, Omotosho, Olorunsogo, Calabar and Benin-Ihovbor. “The NIPP plants have always been infrastructure that provides power supply and national energy security,” NCPN said.
“We are not saying that the plants would not be sold at the appropriate prices and time in the future but not now, when Nigeria is seriously battling challenges of deliberate load rejection by the Distribution Companies (DisCos), deliberate low energy dispatch by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).”
“The House of Representatives should look into the challenges and help in overall public interest to avert needless chaotic energy crises that may come with sales of the five NIPP/NDPHC power plants by BPE,” the consumer group said.
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