The presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) Malik Ado-Ibrahim has faulted President Muhammadu Buhari for not taking action over claims of fraud in the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).
President Bola Tinubu had on Thursday suspended the Managing Director/CEO of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad and three executive directors after allegations of “fraudulent misexpenditure amounting to over N1.2 billion over the past two years, some of which has already been recovered by anti-graft agencies”.
But while reacting to the development, Ado-Ibrahim said it was not surprising to him. He blamed the last administration -which handed over in May – for not doing the needful.
“What happened to the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) was public knowledge even before the 2023 presidential elections,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday. “President Tinubu is just taking the step that the last administration did not take.”
Power Sector Corruption: We haven’t turned the pages to what we need to do to make power work in the country. This dissection of rural electrification of states having electricity is still not going to work because we generate a lot more than we can distribute.
– Malik… pic.twitter.com/Hyc4vlOkOV
— Channels Television (@channelstv) March 7, 2024
He said Nigeria has not “turned the pages” to address the corruption in the country’s power sector.
“We haven’t turned the pages to what we need to do to make power work in the country. This dissection of rural electrification of states having electricity is still not going to work because we generate a lot more than we can distribute,” the YPP chieftain said.
With the country generating about 5,000 megawatts of electricity, Ado-Ibrahim blamed previous administrations for failing to address the issue.
“This government inherited what it has. What is happening in Abuja is not because of what it did in eight months. It is what successive governments have not done that has led us to situations where around the country we are still living with 4,000 megawatts; producing 12,000 megawatts and jettisoning 4,000 to waste,” he added.
But he advised that “President Tinubu needs to have an urgent meeting of innovators and private sector players to sit with the Minister of Power to discuss the issues in the ministry and the way forward.”
