Court stops bidding process for three power plants

Court stops bidding process for three power plants

• FG to probe burnt Osogbo transformer

THE Federal High Court, Abuja Division yesterday barred the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) from continuing with the bidding process for three power stations – Aloaji, Amoku and Gbarain – which began on March 7, 2014.

The presiding judge, Justice Abdul Kafarati reached that decision following a plea by counsel for Ethiope Energy Limited, Dr. Alex Aigbe Izinyon (SAN) for an order that BPE pulls the brake on the process.
Izinyon argued that despite being put on notice, the defendants are going ahead with the bidding process. “Despite being put on notice, they went ahead to take initial step to overreach the motion on notice. They said that there is no court order stopping them from going on with the bidding process. They had ample time to file brief concerning the case but they failed to do so because we served them on March 6, 2014, the last time the case came up. Till date, no process
has been filed by them in this case.

“The court can make an interim order stopping them from taking further step in the exercise because the case cannot be in court and the defendant will continue to take further steps that will destroy the res of this case,” he submitted.
But counsel to BPE, Mr. A.M. Kayode, who held the brief of Prof. Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), told the court to order an accelerated hearing instead of an order of injunction. “I urge the court to order an accelerated hearing in this case. I do not have instruction from my principal to give undertaken. We are not aware that any step has been taken so far in this matter,” he argued.

In a short ruling for an order of injunction, Justice Kafarati held: “It is apparent that the defendants have been served with the motion on notice and they failed to brief their counsel. An order of interim injunction is hereby granted against the 1st defendant from further going on with the bidding process of the power stations.”
Trouble started when a company, Ethiope Energy Limited, that also submitted bids for the said power stations was excluded from the bidding process, causing it to approach the court for an order to stop the BPE from further going ahead with the bidding process.
In the statement of claim filed by plaintiff’s counsel, Izinyon, the energy firm accused the Chairman of the Due Diligence Committee, Mr. Atedo Peterside, of having enormous influence on the BPE.

Meanwhile, the producer of the 150MVA transformer that caught fire last week is to be sanctioned if investigations find the firm culpable, the Federal Government has said.
Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, who inspected the burnt facility in Osogbo, said a team of investigators would probe the incident and find out the exact cause of the fire.
Assistant Director in the Ministry, Ibrahim Haruna, said in Abuja that the sanction would serve as deterrent to manufacturers of fake and sub-standard products and equipment.

He said: “ The minister who was at the project site in Osogbo over the weekend to assess the level of damage said that although the actual cause of the fire was yet to be determined by experts as investigation was on-going, he has been reliably informed that the fire must have been caused by installation failure, which may be from the sub-standard coils used in the transformer.”