RESPITE is on the way for residents of Ondo South District, who have been suffering from power outage for the past 11 years, Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited (NDPHC) said yesterday.
According to the firm’s executive director, Ife Oyedele, power will be restored within the next 60 days to the affected six local government areas in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
He broke the news while reeling out the efforts of government towards reconnecting the affected towns and communities to the national grid.
Oyedele said electricity will be restored following the total overhauling of the damaged facilities and equipment, which have not been in use for the past 11 years.
Towns and communities within the senatorial district have for over 10 years been in total darkness due to the alleged non-payment of outstanding electricity bills owed from the days of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
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Following the takeover of PHCN by the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), the entire axis of the district was subsequently disconnected from the national grid.
The NDPHC boss, while stating that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is concerned about the situation, emphasised that the firm ensure that the timeframe is actualised.
His words: “Within the next 60 days, I can assure you that electricity will be fully restored to the Ondo South Senatorial District.
“The Federal Government took a decision and I recall when the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, came to campaign in the state, he kept hammering on the fact that the government will not allow a section of the country to be in total darkness and that was why the Niger Delta Power Holding Company was encouraged, instructed and directed to intervene. And that is exactly what we have done.
“What we were supposed to do was to just help the BEDC to resuscitate or repair the network from Ore to Okitipupa to Igbokoda and to Ese-Odo Local Government. You don’t need to be an engineer to understand that if a network had been abandoned for 11 years in the rain and in the sun, almost everything would have broken down. Poles had fallen. Cables had been stolen away. Transformers oil had dried up.”
Oyedele added: “And so, when we had done the bit we are supposed to do. We discovered that the transformers were in very horrible conditions. We discover the internal network within the various channels were very bad.
“The vice president instructed us to continue to work and then we discovered that there is only one line that comes from Osogbo to Ondo and feeds 260 MVA transformers in Ondo. And it was from one of those transformers that the 33 KVA line was taken to Ore and from Ore to Okitipupa then to Igbokoda. And unfortunately, one of those transformers had gone bad.
“Having done all the reticulation in Irele, Okitipupa, Ilaje and Ese-Odo and Odigbo Local Governments, there was nowhere that the whole of Ondo town, the whole of Ore, Okitipupa, Irele and Igbokoda, which can be called cities can be fed from one single transformer that is coming all the way from Ondo.
“What we are doing presently is to repair the second line that goes from Ore to Ondo and to ensure that the second transformer is brought back into the network.”
He maintained that the ruling APC government will continue to put the people at the front burner of its policies and programs irrespective of political affiliation.
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