Minister reveals ICPC, EFCC recover N118bn cash, assets in one year
Says Buhari taking Nigeria to the next level of irreversible change
Electricity supply is expected to rise to 11,000 megawatts by 2023 under an agreement with the German firm Siemens, Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed said on Friday.
According to him, it will first grow to 7,000MW by the end of next year from the present 3,400 megawatts.
The minister spoke at a press conference in Abuja as part of activities marking the first year anniversary of the second term of the Buhari Administration.
He said: “Following an agreement with German company Siemens in July 2019 to boost power supply in Nigeria, the stage is set for the perennial power problem to become a thing of the past.
“Under the three-phase agreement, Nigerians will enjoy 7,000 megawatts of reliable power supply by the end of 2021 (phase 1), 11,000 megawatts by the end of 2023 (phase 2) and 25,000 megawatts in the third phase.
“To put things in perspective, Nigeria’s current power generation capacity is more than 13,000 megawatts, but only an average of 3,400 megawatts reliably reach consumers. In essence, the current amount of power that reaches consumers will more than double by the end of next year.
“In addition, this will create thousands of jobs and will leapfrog the country into the next level of industrial and social development.”
He said that based on the performance of the last five years,it was clear that President Muhammadu Buhari was taking Nigeria to the next level of irreversible change.
On the fight against corruption, Mohammed said the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recovered cash and assets in excess of N118 billion in the last one year.
He said the ICPC recovered N81 billion while the EFCC confiscated N32 billion
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Of the cash recoveries made by ICPC, N41.98 billion was restrained on review of MDAs’ Personnel Cost Expenditure and Capital Development Fund while N35.011 billion was recovered in lands, buildings and vehicles, N1.167 billion as cash in Treasury Single Account and N0.77 billion from constituency projects tracked.
The minister said that N 1.097 billion was recovered in completed constituency projects upon return of contractors to site, N 0.865 billion Cash in Other Accounts and 1.113 million dollars cash in domiciliary account.
He said the Commission has also established a Constituency Project Tracking Group named Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking Group, to track performance of publicly-funded projects.
Mohammed said that the projects targeted are those with immediate impact on the livelihood of ordinary Nigerians.
“Four hundred and twenty-four of such projects were tracked within the period under review, which led to the completion of many abandoned projects and recovery of billions of naira on some of the projects.
He said: “Number of completed constituency projects in education, health, water resources, agriculture and other sectors increased to over 400 nationwide, from those that were specifically monitored.
“Furthermore, over 300 contractors who had abandoned projects returned to site in various parts of the country.
In the area of prosecution, the minister said the Commission secured 25 convictions in the past one year.
He said the commission received 1,934 petitions within the period under review and concluded investigations on 588 petitions while 105 cases were filed in court.
He credited EFCC with securing 1,270 convictions including high profile ones, and recovering N32.6 billion, $10,348 , £ 758,155; €183,475; 294,950 Saudi Riyal; 2,800 Chinese Yuan; 300 Canadian Dollars and 500 CFA.
The minister also said that the border drill/exercise swift response introduced by the government has gone a long way in reducing robbery and kidnapping in the country, boosting of agriculture and reducing smuggling.
“We have witnessed a reduction in cases of insecurity – kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery or other violent crimes.
“The border closure has drastically reduced availability of hard drugs on the streets, as well as curbed activities of armed smugglers.
“Talking about security, you are all aware of the unprecedented successes being recorded ever,” he said.
The Nation
