President Umaru Yar’Adua has sacked the Executive Vice-Chairman/Managing Director of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, Mr. Bello Suleiman.

Also removed were two executive directors, Mr. Isiaka Abdul Razak (Finance and Administration) and Simon Atakulu (Operations).

A statement on Tuesday by the Minister of Power, Dr. Lanre Babalola, said the removal of Suleiman and two executive directors was to enable the Federal Government “achieve the goal of providing better electricity supply to Nigerians through the attainment of 6,000 and 10,000 megawats of electricity by December 2009 and 2010 respectively.”

According to the statement, Suleiman has been replaced by Mr. Husein Labo. Mr. Pius Apuye was named as Razak’s successor and Mr. John Ayodele as the replacement for Atakulu.

Before the statement was made available to journalists in Abuja, Suleiman had said that he resigned his appointment in order to end months of an apparent power tussle between him and Babalola.

He had earlier in the day visited the Presidential Villa in Abuja where he reportedly discussed the matter with some Presidency officials.

Explaining his exit, Suleiman said he could no longer function effectively as the minister had allegedly emasculated his office.

It was gathered that one of the reasons he threw in the towel was the plan to create 18 independent companies and boards out of the PHCN – a move he thought could render him a figurehead.

The unbundling of PHCN is one of the strategic plans by the Federal Government to revive the power sector.

When contacted, Suleiman explained in a text message to one of our correspondents that he resigned alone.

He said, ”The minister wants to make the head office just an empty shell with no operational role, and I believe in a head office that would have a say and would be responsible for directing the weak network; insufficient generation; and above all, to ensure prudent use of resources.

“He (minister) wants to implement the Power Sector Reform Act that would not bring results and would end up using the meagre resources sub-optimally.

“He wants to send all funds to the companies and create 18 other boards to manage them. This, I consider wasteful and would end up holding no one responsible when there is failure.

“It is easier to deal with weak chief executive officers than a strong centre I guess. I came to do the job of revamping the ailing power sector; I am not looking for just a job.”

Before the Presidency’s announcement came, a Special Assistant, to the Minister, Mr. John Ayodele, had told one of our correspondents that the minister did not have any problem with the former PHCN boss.

“You should find out why he resigned and you will know that it is probably not the system that is unstable, but the man (MD); and big men don’t just resign like that,” he said.

Suleiman was appointed by President Umaru Yar‘Adua as the PHCN managing director on July 22, 2008.

Before his appointment, he had previously been within the power sector, rising to the position of an Executive Director of the then National Electric Power Authority.

This was before he was made the Minister in Charge of Mines, Power and Steel Development in 1998 by a former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar.

He returned to NEPA as managing director in 2001 under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.

At the time of his appointment, the country was generating about 3,000 megawatts, which had since fallen to below 2,000 MW.

Meanwhile, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday raided the office of the National Electricity Regulation commission and discovered documents relating to a N2bn contract that did not follow due process.

The commission had last month arrested the Chairman of the NERC, Dr. Ransome Owan, and six of his commissioners over an alleged N1.5bn fraud.

Before they were granted administrative bail two weeks ago, the Presidency had suspended them.

One of the NERC officials was said to have been arrested in connection with the N2bn contract. He is believed to be helping the EFCC in its investigation.

It was also gathered that the commission spent N10m to organise conferences in Enugu and Lagos.

A source close to the EFCC said, “Our investigation also revealed that payments for these contracts were said to have been done 50 per cent to 100 per cent upfront.”

According to the source, contracts awarded in January 2009 were backdated to June 2008 by some of the suspects in an apparent attempt to cover their tracks.

The source said that the last conference, which the commission organised before the bubble burst, was on stress management, a topic which was found to be irrelevant to the power challenges in the country.

When contacted, the Head, Media and Publicity of EFCC, Mr. Femi Babafemi, confirmed the raid and the arrest of the NERC official.

He said, “What I can confirm to you is that our operatives raided the National Electricity Regulation commission’s office and arrested one of its officers.

“The raid is part of our on-going investigation into the alleged fraud perpetrated in the commission.”

The first raid at the Abuja homes of Owan and his colleagues by EFCC operatives allegedly led to the discovering of vital documents on various business deals.

Some of the documents retrieved included share certificates and documents on bank deposits.

Serves dem rite-punk asses!!!