Customs get two weeks to recover $3bn NIPP equipment

The Nigeria Customs Service has been issued a two-week ultimatum to recover all the 22 containers bearing equipment for the National Integrated Power Project, which were illegally auctioned in 2009.The Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Mr. Philip Aduda, gave the order on Tuesday when the Comptroller-General of Customs, Mr. Inde Abdullahi, appeared before the committee.Abdullahi had earlier said that the NCS had recovered 15 out of the 22 containers and that the remaining seven would be recovered before the end of the week.However, Aduda said all the containers must be recovered and moved to the sites where they would be used within the two weeks.According him, the status of all contractors involved in the power project should be published so that the committee can follow up on developments.We cannot pay lip service to power projects again in the country, he said.Aduda said the contractors were under obligation to deliver on the projects as the perennial power failure in the country was no longer acceptable.He added that funding should not be a hindrance, as there should be enough provision for credit between the contractors and officials of the NIPP before the usual line of government funding was made available.The NCS had allegedly auctioned the equipment worth $3bn on the pretext that the containers were not claimed by the importers within the stipulated period.The Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, had complained to the committee that the pieces of equipment, which were crucial to the actualisation of sustainable power in the country, had been illegally auctioned.He also told the committee that recovering the equipment would be difficult as they were already in the open market.Aduda, however, said the committee would follow up on the issues until all the containers were recovered and those involved brought to book.
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