afrol News, 12 May - Nigeria's former President has refuted allegations that his regime was responsible for huge grafts in the power generation industry.

Olusegun Obasanjo refused to appear before the parliamentary investigation panel on the energy saga. His response was contained in a 5,000-word document he had submitted to the panely.

The parliamentary panel would not understand why Nigeria - Africa's most populous country and huge producer of oil - still generates limited power, despite spending US $16 billion to improve the sector.

Acute energy supplies has not only taken a great toll on the economy, but also destroyed the energy industry.

The epileptic power supply had forced many Nigerians to buy personal generators to generate their own power.

The panel accused the Obasanjo regime of paying huge amounts of money to 34 "non-existent companies" to build power stations. Its investigations proved that after so many years, no work had taken place in some of the proposed sites.

But Mr Obasanjo - stepped down from office after he had exhausted his two-year term in office - denied any personal responsibility for the corruption uncovered by the parliamentary in the energy industry.

He said his administration had inherited huge problems resulting from18 years of negligence in the power generation industry. Obasanjo said his government had done all it could to double power supply, and doubted as to why the panel assumed as if no work had taken place in the industry.

The former military-turned-civilian leader said the amount spend on building power stations was much lower than the panel's claim of US $16 billion.

Mr Obasanjo warned that the investigation into the power sector could hamper improvement and setback Nigeria's development. He said already private partners had left after they fear being "criminalised" by the probe.

Mr Obasanjo's daughter is also in the centre of corruption allegations.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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