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| Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi |
In responding to the allegation against former Rivers state governor, Rotimi Amaechi, that he allegedly sold the Rivers state power assets and converted the proceeds amounting to N60.5 billion, Mr. George Feyii and Mr. Chamberlin Peterside who were his former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and Commissioner for Finance respectively issued a statement saying the allegations by the present administration in Rivers state, and the INTEGRITY GROUP are not true.
They buttressed their position with the following:
In responding to this allegation against Amaechi, Mr. George Feyii and Mr. Chamberlin Peterside who were his former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and Commissioner for Finance respectively issued a statement saying the allegations are not true. They buttressed their position with the following:
i.The Rivers State Executive council after extensive deliberations on 15th and 16th August 2012 took a decision to sell seventy percent (70%) of its equity in the power assets of the State. The sale of this equity was particularly informed by the following considerations:
1. The Federal government had commenced a privatization process to unbundle the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to drive efficiency.
2. PHCN was not paying River State Government for electricity contributed to the national grid
3. The state was spending heavily on purchase of gas from Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) to fuel the plants. At this time the State was indebted to Shell and Agip to the tune of Seven Billion (N7,000,000,000.00) Naira.
4. The State was spending over one billion Naira annually on maintenance of the plants without commensurate returns in the form of electricity supplies
5. There was need to engender efficiency in the management of the power assets so that its benefits can be felt by the generality of the people of Rivers State.
6. The State Government does not have the requisite manpower to manage the facilities.
7. There was need to augment revenue in the face of dwindling federal allocation to the State.
Similar considerations informed the lease/concession of entities like RISONPALM which before then had shut down for over ten years, Supabod stores (Now SPAR) which was shut down since the 1980s and Olympia Hotel (Radisson Blu Olympia) which had ceased to function since 1993 and was being used as a Police Barracks. These entities were leased and not sold as being mischievously peddled by some individual in Rivers State. At the end of the lease period, these revived assets will revert to the State Government.
ii.Proceeds from the sale of the assets was properly recognized in the 2014 Appropriation Law of Rivers State as one of the sources of revenue to fund the 2014 budget.
iii. The Power assets were priced and sold at a premium at $800,000 per mega watts which is higher than the rate of $358,000 per megawatts used by the Federal Government in disposing its power assets at Afam. Whereas River State earned $302,000,000.00 for seventy percent of its power assets of 542 megawatts, the Federal Government received $260,000,000.00 for the 726 megawatts plant situated adjacent to the Rivers State facility.
iv.Payments for the assets were made in several tranches between 2012 and 2014.
v.All Proceeds of the sale made in US Dollars were lodged in the Rivers State Power Assets Sale Account with Access Bank.
vi.The USD proceeds were sold to willing buyers at a rate higher than the prevailing CBN rates, and the Naira equivalent lodged by the buyers into the Rivers State revenue Account at Zenith Bank.
vii.The companies that were erroneously portrayed as fronts for looting of the funds were actually those that bought the USD and made remittances of Naira equivalents into the given Account with Zenith Bank. Please see details below.
viii. Once the funds were received into RVSG account they were used alongside others from other revenue sources to finance various Government projects and activities.
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