Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has expressed happiness over the fruitful efforts to restore power to the southern senatorial district of the state after over eleven years of power outage in the area.
Governor Akeredolu spoke in his office on Wednesday while playing host to the Ondo South Power Project Committee headed by the Abodi of Ikale, Oba George Faduyile.
The Governor, while appreciating the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, noted the efforts of the Executive Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) Engineer Ifeoluwa Oyedele who he said worked with him to secure the support of the Vice-president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to fulfill the promise made to the people to bring back light to the area.
He stressed that the power outage in the Southern senatorial district of the state has always been a major concern for his administration and the Vice President.
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The Governor said:”Nobody is happy that the South has been in darkness for so long. But it is not a thing within the power of what the state can do. What the state can do is to mount pressure on those who are in charge.”
”As you know, we have our Ore Power Plant which belongs to the state. It is getting ready as the all pipes for gas supply are being laid. We will get one leg to supply light to the South and the other leg to supply light to the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo”, he said.
Briefing the Governor, the Chairman of the Ondo South Power Project Committee, Oba Festus Olumoyegun, the Oniju of Iju-odo, said tremendous progress have been made in reconnecting the district to the national grid.
Oba Olumoyegun said power transmission to the area will be gotten from Omotosho Transmission Company of Nigeria.
Also the Abodi of Kale who is also the Chairman of Ondo South Power Project, Oba George Faduyile, appreciated the Governor Akeredolu and Engr. Ifeoluwa Oyedele for their concerted efforts at getting the south out of darkness.
Earlier, the consultant for the power project, Engr. Idowu Desmennu said despite the long journey of about two and a half years, a success story has been recorded already.
He said by the end of November, power will start to radiate in Ondo South.
Engr. Desmennu said:”We have met with NDPHC, we have signed power purchase agreement with the community and the NDPHC. By the grace of God, by Friday, we are going to pay N371Million as security deposit for power we are taking from South.
“ We have over 10,000 prepaid meters that we are ready to take off with. Our program there is also involving different value chains . Transformer value chain, different. Transmission, different.
“Now , in Okitipupa and Irele local government areas, none of the transformers are working except three in Okitipupa. We are going to replace all the transformers so that they can have electricity. Where we don’t have enough, we put there. Where we have bad ones we change them. Because without these things it can’t work.
“Now, there are some areas where there are no network, we have planned to do it. I want to tell you that from the day we started, we have not collected a kobo from Ondo South and we will not collect a kobo until after three months when the power start to roll expect their recharge cards and our recharge cards start from N300 the hereby an individual who wants to use N100 a day can buy recharge card and use.
“It’s a new thing and all thanks to Engr. Ife Oyedele who availed us the opportunity of the 5% of power being generated In Omotosho power plant that can come to the community. We pleaded for it and the community is now distributing it.
“By today, TCN has been given the instruction to give us all the support we need. And I believe between 15th and 30th of November power will start to radiate and by December and January, we will be welcoming you and the Vice President to come and commission the project.”
