A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday dismissed an ex parte injunction sought by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) to stop the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) from transferring the Aba and Ariaria Business Districts to the Aba Power Limited today, (Thursday, September 10, 2015).
Justice Gabriel Kolawole of Court 5 rejected the application, stating that he did not agree with the reasons adduced by Enugu DisCo for the orders to be granted ex parte because the request lacked merit.
Some of the reliefs sought by the EEDC include the revocation of Aba Power’s license to operate and an injunction stopping NERC from recognising Aba Power as an operator in the electricity industry.
The EEDC was represented in the matter by Kayode Adetokunbo, a former minister of Youth Development in the President Goodluck Jonathan administration.
The BPE had on August 25, this year, directed the EEDC to hand over to Aba Power Ltd, the Aba ring-fenced area, consisting of the Aba and Ariaria Electricity Business Units, on Thursday September 10, 2015 because it is not part of the PHCN assets sold to the EEDC on October 30, 2013, during the privatisation of the nation’s eleven power distribution companies, popularly known as DISCOs.
The BPE had severally in the past, indicated that the acquisition of Enugu DisCo by Interstate Electric was subject to the Lease Agreement granted by the Federal Government to Aba Power Ltd over the ring-fenced area.
In the letter personally signed by its Director General, Benjamin Dikki, the BPE explained that the two business districts in Abia State were excluded from the privatisation, based on an agreement reached since 2005 by the Federal Government and its appropriate agencies, on the one hand, and Aba Power Ltd and Geometric Power, on the other.
The agreement, which has a supplemental lease signed in 2006, provides that Aba Power supply electricity to the two business districts for 20 years. The agreement further provides that that Aba Power has a right of first refusal to purchase the ring-fence in the event of privatisation.
In a separate letter addressed to the Chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) also on the same date, Dikki stated: “During the bidding process for the acquisition of the EEDC, information on the existence of the lease agreement was made available, both in the data room and during the negotiations for the acquisition of the EEDC. Interstate Electric had full knowledge of the lease agreement before it acquired the EEDC”.
Despite a previous directive from the power sector regulator, NERC in 2013, the EEDC has refused access to Aba Power’s contractors to complete the remaining network interconnections for the evacuation of power from its 141MW power plant.
Though former president Goodluck Jonathan publicly pledged to resolve the dispute between Aba Power and the EEDC “because it is a man-made error”, he did not do so before leaving office on May 29, 2015.
Eight committees were set up by the Jonathan administration to look into the matter and each recommended that the government honour its agreement with the private electricity companies, but the government did not implement any of the recommendations.
The $520m Aba power project was started in response to incessant complaints by industrialists in Aba, often called the Japan of Africa on account of the people’s talent in manufacturing, that poor electricity supply was paralysing their businesses.
When James Wolfensohn, the then President of the World Bank, visited the city in 2004 the business community unanimously informed him that inadequate electricity was their greatest challenge.
By our Reporter
