Economic and Financial Crimes Commission blames corrupt contractors and substandard electric materials for frequent collapse of national grid

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says corrupt contractors who supply and use substandard electric materials in the power sector are responsible for frequent collapse of national grid, and black out.

The Chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, disclosed this at the commission’s headquarters, Abuja, on Tuesday when he received members of the House Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes in his office.

The grid has recorded 10 collapses this year, plunging the entire country into darkness.

The EFCC Chairman revealed that investigations carried out by the agency showed that contractors in the power sector, who were awarded projects to supply electrical equipment, often opted for substandard materials.

He noted that this “dubious” practice was a major cause of frequent equipment failures, outages and grid collapses as witnessed recently.

He further revealed that the commission discovered that in the last 20 years, capital project implementation and execution in the country were not up to 20 percent.

The anti-graft agency, which also lamented poor implementation and execution of capital projects in the country, explained that Nigeria could not achieve infrastructural or any form of growth under such conditions.

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, had also blamed the trend on obsolete power infrastructure.