By SEBASTINE OBASI

The Bureau for Public Enterprises, BPE, has told Geometric Power, promoted by the former Minister of Power, Prof Bath Nnaji, to expunge any idea of being given a new distribution company to work with.

The BPE insisted that acquiescence to the demand for a new distribution company will amount to a violation of pre-existing agreements with government, Enugu Disco and Aba Power.

This clarification became necessary following what the Bureau termed as, “blackmail to propel FGN/BPE to deny the rights of one citizen in order to satisfy the inordinate greed of another.”

The BPE further stated that there was a lease agreement dated 28th April 2005, signed between the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and Aba Power Limited (APL). According BPE, the agreement was for the generation, transmission and distribution of power to residential and commercial consumers in Aba, and Ariaria districts that fall under the Enugu Zone of NEPA in Abia State.

It added that the agreement which relates to the ring-fenced area in Aba and Ariaria districts was amended by another supplemental agreement dated August31, 2006, and is pursuant to a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, dated May11, 2004.

Clause 3.1 of the agreement had created a lease of 15 years commencing from the date of the signing of the agreement to expire on the 15th anniversary of the signing, but the supplemental agreement extended the period to 20 years.

According to the BPE, in compliance with the Electric Power Sector Reform Act, EPSRA 2005, NEPA was unbundled into 18 successor companies, andthe Enugu Zone became Enugu Distribution Company. Since Aba and Ariaria Districts fall under the Enugu Disco, the contracts between NEPA and APL were inherited by Enugu Disco in consonance with the principles of succession of title and Section 8 of the EPSRA 2005.

“If there was anything wrong with the transaction structure, the person was in the position to make inputs to correct it. We therefore wonder what Geometrics is trying to achieve now.We want to state the following for the records and information of the public:

“APL has a subsisting contract to generate, transmit and distribute power in the Aba and Ariaria Districts of Enugu Disco for 20 years. This contract was inherited from NEPA and PHCN based on the powers conferred on NCP by EPSRA to create successor companies to NEPA/PHCN. The Federal Government of Nigeria, in consonance with the declared principle to abide by the rule of law, has not varied or vitiated the contract.

“Interstate Electric as the new landlord has not denied the existence of the lease agreement as the new core investor of Enugu Disco.FGN/BPE has executed a share sale agreement with Interstate Electric to own 60 percent of the shares of Enugu Disco. The balance of 40 percent is still held by FGN/BPE.

“We advise that APL should concentrate and execute the business model it fashioned to recover its investments in 20 years instead of wasting resources maligning people and misinforming the public.

“We want to state categorically that no amount of blackmail will propel FGN/BPE to