EFCC links frequent national grid collapse to corruption

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has attributed the frequent collapse of the national grid to activities of corrupt contractors.

He stated this when members of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes visited the commission’s headquarters in Abuja on oversight functions on Tuesday.

Olukoyede, who expressed concern that financial crimes and corruption undermined the nation’s development, said the dubious practice was a major cause of frequent equipment failures, outages, and grid collapses in the country.

He noted that one of the country’s problems in the last 20 years was that budget performance was below 20 percent.

The EFCC boss said some of the electricity companies bought substandard equipment to run the electricity, adding this has been responsible for the frequent collapses of the national grid.

He lamented the poor implementation and execution of capital projects in the country.

The national grid collapsed twice within 48 hours last week.

The system collapse was the 11th in the country this year.

READ ALSO: After 11th collapse in 2024, TCN says efforts to stabilize national grid ongoing

Olukoyede said: “Investigations carried out by the EFCC showed that contractors in the power sector, who were awarded projects to supply electrical equipment, often opted for substandard materials.

“As I am talking to you now, we are grappling with electricity. If you see some of the investigations we are carrying out within the power sector, you will shed tears.

“Our mandate this year is to work with the National Assembly to see if we can meet up to 50 percent of the execution of our capital project for the year.

“If we do 50 percent, we will be fine as a nation. Lack of implementation of this capital budget is one of our major problems in Nigeria.”

He called for collective efforts and partnership with all stakeholders to win the battle against corruption in the country.

He stressed the need for effective collaboration between the lawmakers and the EFCC in achieving the commission’s mandate of fighting corruption.

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