Former Minister of Power, Bart Nnaji, on Wednesday said that he voluntarily resigned his appointment to retain his integrity which he claimed has come under attacks.
Mr Nnaji made this known in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media, Ogbuagu Anikwe.
The statement said that Mr Nnaji “had to voluntarily resign the office of Minister to retain his integrity which has in recent days come under attacks by powerful vested interests that were hell bent on messing up the integrity and reputation that he has painstakingly built over the years.”
“This resignation is also to ensure that there is no spill over of these attacks to the president who is working very hard to transform the nation.”
He said that he stepped aside from all his private involvement before joining the federal government.
“I would like to reiterate that before I accepted to serve as Minister, I resigned my directorship of all companies that I had interest in and put my shares in those companies in a blind trust; this means that I was not privy to the day-to-day business decisions of those who ran this trust” he said.
According to the statement, the former Minister publicly declared the participation in the privatization process of a foreign company that did business with a company that he had interest in.
He explained that the fact came to his knowledge only during the course of evaluating the consortia that were bidding for PHCN successor companies, and that consequently, he also voluntarily recused himself from participating in the selection process. ”
Mr Nnaji said his resignation gives him the opportunity to go back to his integrated power projects which have been designed to accelerate the development of the nation.
He expressed his gratitude to President Goodluck Jonathan and to millions of Nigerians who supported him in his effort to improve the situation of public power supply in Nigeria in past 14 months when he served as minister of power.
Resignation brings credibility
Meanwhile, the Federal Government said the resignation of Mr Nnaji as the minister for power will give credibility to the privatisation programme going on in the power sector.
Briefing State House correspondents after this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, the Minister for Information, Labaran Maku said that investors all over the world will now be reassured that the federal government is serious with the process and will not allow issues of conflict of interest to undermine the process.
Mr Maku said that rather than discourage the administration and the investors the development will reinforce confidence of all in the process.
