Reps summon NBET chief over $43 million gas contract

Nnaemeka Eweluka, the managing director/chief executive officer of Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company Plc, has been called by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Finance for refusing to appear in support of the organization’s budget proposal in the 2023 Appropriations Bill.

The summons was given by the committee’s chairman, James Faleke, on Monday in Abuja during the budget defense meeting for the committee’s overseen ministries, departments, and agencies.

The MPs criticized the general manager of corporate services at NBET, Aliyu Abba, for informing the committee that Eweluka took a leave of absence last Friday on behalf of the MD/CEO.

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Abba also informed the lawmakers that he was unable to respond to their questions regarding the Federal Government’s take-or-pay contracts with Azura Power West Africa Limited and Arco Gas, which required the nation to pay the companies $33 million and $10 million each month, respectively, whether there was an energy supply or not.
Musa Abdullahi, the committee’s deputy chairman, expressed disappointment at Eweluka’s absence and recalled how the National Assembly met on October 7, a Friday, when members were not in session, specifically to receive the 2023 Appropriation Bill from President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

Abdullahi mentioned how the committee brought its members back from their two-month yearly leave to discuss the Fiscal Strategy Paper and Medium Term Expenditure Framework for 2023–2025.

In this instance, we wrote a letter to the commission, and I’m certain the MD got the letter before starting his leave, he said in part. Because of this, and more crucially because of Item 5 on the letter, he would have excused himself from work for just one day to participate in what we are doing if he had given it that much priority.
“With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I believe we need to demand that the MD of NBET show up. Let him cancel his leave, even if it’s just for one day. Tell him again that the budget committee is asking that he appear and defend it before we approve it.