5-month Blackout: “We don’t have N90 million to replace Ife North transformer” – IBEDC
In a shocking turn of events, the management of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) on Wednesday revealed to the Osun House of Assembly that the five months of power outage in Ife North local government council was due to not having N90 million to replace a damaged transformer in the area.
The regional head of IBEDC, Akin Ogunleye, explained to the lawmakers that the power outage in the council was caused by a faulty transformer that would cost N90 million to replace.
“When we were contacted on the power outage, we got to work thinking that it was a minor thing that we could fix, only to find out that the coil of the transformer had gone bad,” explained Mr Ogunleye. “The bill we got for the repair of the transformer was around N28 million to N35 million, and experience has taught us that it is not the best to repair but replace with a new one which is in the region of N90 million. IBDEC cannot afford it,” he said.
Mr Ogunleye added that the distribution company had tried its best to resolve the power outage, saying that the situation was beyond what IBEDC could handle because of the amount needed to fix the problem.
He further explained that the company was faced with a paucity of funds and could not, for now, take the full responsibility of restoring power to the affected communities in the local government.
Speaker of Osun Assembly, Timothy Owoeye, stated that the legislature could not continue to see residents in darkness and watch without finding a lasting solution to the situation.
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He held that the parliament would not shy away from its constitutional responsibility and would not allow people of the state to be deprived of their rights to electricity and meaningful life.
He, however, adjourned the meeting until October 26 for IBDEC to come up with a solution template.
On Thursday, the Osun parliament had summoned the managing director of IBDEC, the Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC) and the Federal Competition and Consumers Protection Commission (FCCPC).
The summon was based on a motion moved by Tunde Olatunji, representing Ife North.
(NAN)
