The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the sale of power assets in the country on Thursday said that the assets were undervalued.
The committee had requested from the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and Abuja Distribution Company documents on the value of the assets on the sale of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and other power stations sold by BPE.
The Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Ahmed Yerima said that the memorandum submitted by BPE showed that TCN assets were undervalued.
The committee queried why a foreign owned company, Manitoba Hydro-Electric International Co Ltd was awarded the contract to manage TCN against its Nigerian subsidiary, Manitoba Hydro-Electric Nigeria Ltd.
The committee also requested for the letter of no objection from the other companies that participated in the bidding of the TCN power assets before the sale.
While quoting Section 87 of the 1999 Constitution, Yerima said that the House is empowered to investigate any matter, person or authority for the purposes of good governance.
He added that the House resolution on the ongoing investigation into the sale of power assets by the BPE was to represent the interest of Nigerians.
Earlier, BPE said that there was a public advertisement that called for expression of interest before the pre-qualification of the company as the preferred bidder.
The Acting Director-General of BPE, Dr Vincent Akpotaire, who was represented by Mr Amechi Aloke, a Deputy Director in the agency, said Manitoba international Canada became their preferred bidder after the pre- qualification and bidding of four companies.
He stated that the bidding process was done in a transparent manner.
Akpotaire said that the whole essence of the bidding process was to get the lowest bidding contractor with the requisite expertise to take over and manage the power station. (NAN)