The controversial MD/CEO of Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc., Marilyn Amobi has 3 months 3 Weeks to the end of her horrendous 4 year tenure which expires on 24th July 2020, her tenure has seen a once esteemed public institution decimate into an epicenter of stealing, oppression, harassment and wanton disregard for constituted authority. The appointment of Dr Amobi only spelt doom for the power sector rather than making power available for Nigerians with over one trillion naira incurred and contingent liabilities.
Despite her appointment letter expressly stating 4 years tenure, Marilyn Amobi paid herself a whopping 77 million naira into her Stanbic Bank Account No 0019128749 as 6 years rent and furniture grant in violation of her Appointment Letter. Furthermore, Amobi started enriching herself by sending NBET staff and non-staff on group training to Aarhus University in Denmark where the facilitator Prof Erik Reimer Larsen was a partner in the company (ESL Economics and Management Associates Ltd with RC No 1025108 and subsequent certificate No 751030) owned and operated by Dr Amobi with 80% shareholding.
As the clock ticks and her unfortunate sojourn into the Public Service becomes dim, it is time for Amobi to proceed on TERMINAL LEAVE and face her demons of corruption and executive high-handedness.
A former teacher and a consultant in the Power Sector, the embattled MD/CEO was brought in through the back door by her benefactors under the assumption that her theoretical knowledge and diaspora experience could add some value to the well-established Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc as a successor to the pioneer MD/CEO (Rumundaka Wonodi) who himself had just concluded his 4 year tenure. As with most public appointments, no background check was conducted on her mental state nor fictitious claims on her work experience. This has left a bitter taste in the mouth of her benefactors, all of whom Marilyn Amobi has openly disrespected and disgraced to the chagrin of others.
Her insolent remarks to the immediate past Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power, impolite response to the immediate and current Ministers of Power, disregard for the DG BPE (BPE owns 80% stake in NBET) and offensive approach to the Office of the Vice President is no longer news to all. Amobi’s shifting loyalty has seen her smear her benefactors including the Office of the Vice President, IFC’s and Development Partners while she goes about laying huge blame on others and exposing records on the ACCUGAS/NDPHC deal which currently exposes the Nigerian Government to a financial liability of over $10 million (ten million dollars) monthly that is passed on to the consumers through exorbitant electricity tariff, thus contributing to the high cost of electricity in Nigeria. What Amobi fails to tell others during her shaming game is that she was a signatory to the ACCUGAS/NDPHC deal. How easy it is to smear others and paint yourself as a saint, Marilyn has become a rabble rouser, going from one high office to the next, creating fictitious stories and shedding crocodile tears to confuse her audience. Amobi continues to reap from the broken down corporate governance structure in the power sector, and currently enjoys support from the Minister of Finance, and Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to the detriment of Nigerians yearning for available and affordable power supply.
Amobi is a monumental failure and colossal liability to the power sector, such that it can only take divine intervention to restore NBET and power sector to its glory after her departure. Amobi has perfected the script from the Machiavellian playbook where she lures in her supporters through the enticement of gifts, foreign trips, cars and juicy contracts, once they get their hands on the till, she then uses same to blackmail them to keep their mouths shut and face turned away from her atrocities. Marilyn Amobi tells everyone that cares to listen that she is appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari, and him alone can decide when her tenure is over; thus suggesting to anyone that cares to listen that she is above the law and remains protected by the Presidency despite the corruption indictments by the EFCC, BPP, Auditor General of the Federation and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) for gross violation of the Public Procurement Act in the alleged contract splitting of N650 million naira office partitioning contract to Julius Berger and maintaining foreign account and wired £95,000 in 2018, two years after assumption of office. Her inglorious payment to the tune of N2billion naira monthly over-invoicing in favour of Olorunsogo Power Plc. and Omotosho Power Plc. came as a rude shock to Nigerians who are dealt the short end of the stick to pay for bloated cost of inefficient power supply.
Her abuse of office and disregard for constituted authority including her recent neglect for the judgment by the National Industry Court issued in favor of Mr. Abdullahi Sambo – NBET’s Internal Auditor and whistleblower that took off the lid on the financial atrocities and profound corruption by Amobi in NBET. The court ruled in favor and granted victory to Mr. Sambo, it is important to note that the controversial MD has either lost all her court cases or have it stricken out based on her greed and lack of merit, despite her efforts at wasting government resources to bribe her way through.
Marilyn Amobi secretly called “The Witch” by her staff has led a reign of terror since taken over the rein of leadership at NBET. The staff and associates of NBET work under terror and only whisper when communicating with each other as the entire office is bugged with voice recorders. The narcissistic MD/CEO illegally records the private conversions of staff which she parades on occasion to intimidate the staff via her lapdog group “the WatchDog”, Marilyn controls the installations, review and recording of CCTV equipment at NBET. In addition, she instigated the arrest and detention of select NBET management and staff by the State Security Service (also known as DSS). She made sure certain management staff were detained overnight away from their families and denied access to legal representation nor bail. As is common knowledge, the embattled Marilyn Amobi parades herself with no less than eight retinue of armed policemen and SSS (with additional burden of average of N2million per month on NBET’s payroll) to further oppress the staff and scare stakeholders away. The embattled MD/CEO has no less than five cases at the National Industrial Court for her executive highhandedness and reign of terror in addition to cases against media houses that exposed her fraudulent activities; the cost of these cases runs into several hundreds of millions of naira as she mostly engages Senior Advocates of Nigeria which is to be borne by the electricity consumers. NBET Management staff led by its Legal Counsel/Company Secretary have since petitioned the duo of Minister of Power and the Minister of Finance on the physical and verbal threat to work at NBET, the latter is yet to respond. All these unlawful and fraudulent payments by Dr Amobi were borne by the electricity consumers since the electricity charges is pass-through.
As it is said in normal parlance, the time has come for the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to correct this misstep before night falls. Marilyn Amobi should immediately embark on terminal leave and face the consequences of her actions as a deterrent to all unscrupulous public servants. The Courts have spoken, the Auditor General, BPP, ICPC and EFCC have spoken, the Media has spoken, and the People have spoken. It is time to cleanse the Power Sector of viruses and restore NBET to its rightful place and functions.
To further worsen the matter, the reconstituted Board of Directors of NBET reconstituted since August 2018 was yet to be inaugurated till date, the account of the agency was not subjected to external audit scrutiny as required by the Financial Regulation since the assumption of office of Dr Amobi as she resisted a functioning governance structure. She also banished the NBET Board appointed CFO and CIA from their job functions as a cover up.
The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc. (NBET) is a trading licensee created by the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act (2005) as a special purpose vehicle to buy electricity from Generation Companies (GenCos) through the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and sell to the Distribution Companies (DisCos) through Vesting Contract (VC). NBET was inaugurated on 29 July 2010, and holds an operating license from the Nigerian Electricity Trading Plc. (NERC) as a power sector entity.
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