Former military Heads of State, Generals Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha and Abudulsalami Abubakar have been indicted for grounding the power sectors during their tenures.
Igali, revealed this during the on-going power probe by Senate Adhoc Committee on Power.
He further said out of 79 power generation units during the time only 19 power stations were functioning.
According to him, the power sector was so backward that no engineer was recruited during the regimes of Babangida through Abubakar, stating that Obasanjo brought life to power sector in 1999.
He added that the last power plant in the country before the emergence of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999 was built in 1991.
Igali attributed the problem with the power sector in the country to lack of consistent investment by the federal government, noting that investment in power must be consistent and gradual.
“I do know that despite government’s effort at funding power sector, the nation continues to experience epileptic power supply, however it takes time to stabilize”, he said.
Igali disclosed that as at 1999 when Olusegun Obasanjo took over, the power generation stood at 1,750 megawatt and because it’s capital intensive, the Ministry had to bring in private sector which has resulted to a reasonable improvement from what it used to be.
On the expenditure spent on power, Igali told the Committee that N948 billion was released from the annual budgets from 1999 till date and N155 billion was taken from the Multi Year Tariff Order under subsidy, while Olotu informed the committee that N1.64 trillion was withdrawn from excess crude account.
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