A former member of the House of Representatives and chairman, House adhoc committee on power sector probe during the sixth National Assembly, Godwin Ndudi Elumelu has revealed how cabals in power sector in connivance with government officials have nearly bled the country to death.

He told our correspondent on Monday that many contractors allegedly connived in the past, to fleece the federal government of trillions of naira.

He said, “A situation where government would spend $1.545 billion on nine gas turbines when 18 of the same equipment were bought for $404 million within a short period is evil and a rape of the nation’s economy.”

According to him, the cost of transmission line between Kubwa to Katampe sub-station when checked was found to be over-inflated, adding,  “Another mind-boggling discovery was made where 18 turbines were procured for $404 million. Then, when additional nine turbines were needed, they now spent $1.545 billion on them. Is that sane for anybody to comprehend?”

He lamented that it is disheartening that with huge sum of money that had been expended on the sector, the country is still battling to generate just about 3,500 megawatts of electricity.

“In the course of doing our investigation, we travelled to Brazil for a comparative assessment public investment in electricity and we found out that, what they spent to achieve stable electricity was far less that than what we had spent; but had nothing to show for it.

“In Brazil, Geometric Power told me that they spent $12 billion to generate 12,000 megawatts and it is working very well. As at that time, Nigerian government had already spent close to $16 billion generating between 2,500 to 3,000 megawatts of electricity,” he explained.