ANOTHER scandal involving daughter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, was on Wednesday unearthed by the House of Representatives panel probing the power contract scam.

M.Shnider Energy Nigeria, an Austrian company linked with Senator Obasanjo-Bello, was on Wednesday discovered to be involved in another N4.1 billion contract scandal.


The money was meant for the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) which the House of Representatives probe panel is currently investigating.


The panel learnt that the Austrian company failed to execute the contract for building a power station in Borokiri, Rivers State, after collecting an advance payment from the Federal Government, although the exact amount of money it collected could not be ascertained.


Members of the House of Representatives probe panel who visited the site of the contract could not believe their ears when told that the contractor did not do anything even as the supposed contract site visited turned out to be a swamp.


Meanwhile, officials of the NIPP who equally visited the contract site for the construction of a power substation said the Austrian company had not collected any amount for the job, whereas reports on the contract indicated that it had been mobilised by five per cent.


In a similar development, the sum of N1.2 billion meant for Afam 4 Power Transmission Project also in Rivers State seemed to have gone down the drain as the probe panel discovered that the contractor involved, Enegovod, did not bother to get a site for the job after collecting an advance payment of five per cent.


The panel also discovered that Afam 5 Power Extension Project costing at N276 million and meant to generate 138 megawatts of electricity with completion date put at 2008, has been virtually abandoned.


Also at Onne, Rivers State, a contract for a new sub-station worth N2.5 billion was discovered to have been mishandled as the contractor involved, Valence complained to the probe panel that it had site problem in the process of execution. The company had collected N330 million as mobilisation.


Another Shell-NNPC Joint Venture Project in River State located at Afam and meant to supply gas to the power stations in the state were also discovered to be facing abandonment against the background of inability of NNPC to fulfill its side of the contract bargain.


The officials of Shell who spoke to the House panel on the contract said the oil company had fulfilled up to 55 per cent of its bargain whereas NNPC was unable to pay the 45 per cent required to put the gas supply power project on line.


Meanwhile, Senator Obasanjo-Bello, has shunned the summons by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and joined members of the Senate Committee on Health to jet out of the country to Cuba.


Senator Obasanjo-Bello was supposed to appear before the EFCC to answer questions on the role of her committee in the N300 million scandal that rocked the Ministry of Health, leading to the resignation of Professor Adenike Grange and Mr. Michael Adukwu as ministers in the ministry.


The senator had through the clerk of the committee, Mr. I.E.F. Edobor, said on Tuesday that the committee only received N10 million from the ministry as part of the support for the retreat held in Ghana.


The fund was sourced from the controversial N300 million unspent funds of the ministry’s 2007 budget.


Sources in the National Assembly confirmed that Senator Obasanjo-Bello travelled late on Tuesday to join members of the Senate Committee on Education, headed by Senator Joy Emordi.


The committee is due to return to the country next week. Although sources said the Ogun State Central senator had been in touch with the EFCC since the scandal broke out, it was gathered that she was being expected at the commission on Wednesday.


But another source said that the EFCC was not readily agitated about the failure of the senator to appear before it on Wednesday as the Senate leadership was said to have assured the anti-graft agency that the committee members would only be away for a while.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/03042008/news/news1.html

they should take action against her and let her break the record of being the first female top politician to be in jail,after all what a man can do,a woman can do, she also seems to be taunting the law enforcement

Just imagine the impact all those projects would have had if they were completed. It seems to me that committees are simply an arrangement and vice that senators and house of rep members use to make money and waste the money of the Nigerian masses. All those trips that have been taken in the name of causes are they new? Weren't such trips taken during the last regime? And what was learnt or how did it add value to governance or the nigerian situation? Very soon you will soon start hearing of senators taking trips to germany to see how people sweep their houses there (all expenses paid of course). If certain individuals are not investigated and if found guilty, prosecuted by the end of this year (at least Iyabo, Odilli, Ibori), then Yaradua should not even open his mouth about any rule of law or due process anymore because that would really be nothing less than a spit on the face of Nigerians. If this whole story is true it would mean that Iyabo, even after the whole contract fiasco of last year has not learnt any lesson or gained any sort of moral or ethical fibre in what seems to be a non existent concience. And why should she, we all keep hearing on a daily basis how corruption is destroying Nigeria and that it is the cancer of the country and yet please someone educate me, has anyone in the history of this so called democracy been genuinely punished for corruption? If Iyabo is not properly investigated even while she is still a senator, won't expecting her not to steal again in even 2 months time be nothing more than wishful thinking?

Wetin una dey talk?If Iyabo no loot, who she go take am resemble? Na ma papa wey don die?

Blood is tika than water!

I do not blame her. Just simply trying to overwhelm the acts of her father.

Why are these idiots not jailed and arrested? and more idiotic that Nigerians themselves are not taking strong actions on it.
Idiots, na her papa she wan resemble? No wonder the country is in disarray. what if she wan resemble Abasha? This people will still pardon her

They will never do anything to her.

This woman is surely making a fool out of every Nigerian.

®~^Sly^~®:

They will never do anything to her.

abi o, just a hell of noise