The award and handling of the $5.792bn Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project (MHEPP) contract from 1999 to date is to be probed by the Senate.
The red chambers moved the motion, mandating Committees on Appropriations, Power and Finance, to begin the probe.
Expressing concerns over inability to implement the project since its conception, the upper chamber decided to probe the project following Senator Harun Manu’s motion which reeled out the benefits of the project to the nation.
Manu informed that the Senate that the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Power, signed a contract with a consortium of Chinese contractors, comprising CGCC and CGOC in 2017, to construct a 3050 megawatts hydroelectric power project, known as the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project in Taraba State at the sum of $5.792bn.
He said: “The Federal Executive Council of the Buhari administration approved the said contact with an agreed JV funding stricture of 85%from the Chinese consortium (CGCC-45%,SHC-35% and CGOC-20%) and 15%from the federal Government of Nigeria as counterpart funding for the entire project with a 72 months construction period and on a site area over 146 sq km in Kurmi, and Sardauna local Government of Taraba state.”
Therefore, the immediate past Governor of Sokoto state, Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, in his comment on the motion, called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to see to the revival of the Mambilla hydroelectric power project as a legacy project of his administration.
He urged him to activate all necessary measures to see to the actualization of the project earnestly.