We do not fear ongoing audit of Ibom Power, we need funding – MD, Etukudo

The Managing Director of the Akwa Ibom State-owned Power Company, Ibom Power, Meyen Etukudo has said he has no reason to panic over the ongoing audit of the company.

Recall that governor Umo Eno had in 2023 ordered a comprehensive audit of the company in order to reposition it to yield the expected dividends.

Etukudoh fielding questions from journalists in Uyo on Tuesday said he was not perturbed about the audit as the records of all the operations of the company were intact and nothing has been done in secrecy since his assumption of office.

He said, “Fear over audit? what for? I have no iota of fear. I sleep like a baby because all the records are there. One thing you should know is that I can’t expect to be the MD of Ibom Power for life. I’ve paid my dues, I’ve fought a good fight as Apostle Paul said in the Bible. I expect that the right thing should be done.”

Etukudo also explained that over seven years as Ibom Power MD he never borrowed any loan as erroneously speculated rather he inherited N10.48 billion debt, other debts and 33 financially related court cases and has been able to defray some.

He further explained that the only time Ibom Power Company would have obtained a loan should have been when the company owed three months staff salary due to “waterfall policy” by NEC which did not give the company money to pay salaries.

His words, “We met 10.48 billion Naira loan debt on ground, or should I put it as it is, 11.6m USD collected from Afrexim Bank. Ibom Power Company was owing Accugas 2.62 billion Naira as of then. Diamond Bank was 2.34 billion Naira, Access Bank debt was 202 million Naira, Agrekko was 23 Million Naira, and Zenith Law Firm was 24 million Naira, in addition to the 33 Court cases, all financially related. All these happened before I assumed office, the records are there.”

He also encouraged the state government to fund Ibom Power as it did Ibom Air which is also a state-owned company.

“The way forward is for the state government to put money in Ibom Power as they put in Ibom Air. To the last two administrations, even One Naira has not gone to Ibom Power. The state government took a 20 billion Eurobond for Ibom Air. We are saying, take us a Eurobond of 20 billion or even 10 billion, let us do all our maintenance, bring back our GT bands and run as we should, we will stand better and will be paying back every month.” He said