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| Prof Chinedu Nebo |
Land owners meet
visiting minister with protest
by: John Shiklam in Kaduna
There are fears that power projects worth N3.7billion may be
abandoned in Kaduna State.
Managing Director of the Kaduna Electricity Distribution
Company (KEDC), Alhaji Idris Mohammed, who expressed the fears saturday said
electricity projects under the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company worth
N3.7billion may be abandoned if the federal government fails to complete them
before the eventual sale of the company to private investors.
Mohammed made the disclosure when the Minister of Power,
Prof Chinedu Nebo, paid a working visit to the company. He said lack of budgetary provision for the projects in the 2013 budget may stall the completion of the
projects.
He noted that majority of the projects spread across Kaduna,
Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi states are already 50 percent completed, adding that
the company also need to install about 68,000 electricity metres before the end
of the year in order to improve revenue generation.
But the minister’s visit to one of the projects sites was
nearly marred by massive protest by some land owners in Kudendan ward in
Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The minister, who visited the area to inspect the 215 megawatts
power station being constructed there, was met by the land owners who were protesting government’s
alleged failure to give them alternative land to settle after taking over their
lands for the project. The protesting
land owners told the minister that four years after the government took their
lands with a promise to provide an alternative place for them, nothing has been
done.
Spokesman of the land owners, Francis Nwobodo, said when he was governor, “Vice President
Namadi Sambo came here and told us that the government was interested in this
land and that the power plant they will build will benefit all of us.
“He promised to give us another land and based on that, we
willingly gave away our land. Four years after, we have not heard anything. The
late governor Yakowa came here and promised that they will do something. Some
of us have died and yet, we are yet to be given another land.”
The Minister however
commended the protesting land owners for the peaceful nature of their protest
and for giving their support for the project. He said the government was
willing to fulfill its promise of giving them another land, pointing out that
something must have happened which led to the delay in fulfilling the promise.
“I will talk with the governor of Kaduna State on this
matter when we meet. I would have seen him today, but he is traveling. I want to
assure you that I will talk with him. The power project that is being
constructed here will give you more power than what you are currently
enjoying,” the minister said.
The KEDC Managing Director however told the Minister that an
average of N980.2 million is generated monthly by the company, while the total
debt owed the company as at the end of May 2013 stands at N19.8 billion
He complained that 18
power plants under the National Independent Power Project (NIPP) were awarded
to a single company, Newsman Engineering,
which, according to him, had not shown any sign of completing them and
urged the minister assist in finding out what why the contractor seems to be
unserious with the work.
“Eighteen power projects under the NIPP were awarded to
Newsman Engineering and they are yet to be delivered. We have been trying to
access the level of completion of these projects without success. I am
appealing to the Minister to use your good office to intervene and get them to
give us a definite date of completion of these projects,” he said.
Responding, the Minister assured that the government will do
everything possible to ensure that the projects are not abandoned.
“I hate abandoned projects. But let me say that most of
these projects were awarded long ago and abandoned due to one reason or the
other,” he said.
Nebo noted that because of the belief within the ministry
that the privatisation exercise would have been completed by December 2012,
funds were not made available for the completion of the projects adding that
intervention funds are being released for the completion of the projects.
“Everybody had felt, even within the ministry that the
privatisation exercises would have been concluded by December last year. That
did not happen and unfortunately, the ministry did not have money to complete
distribution and generation companies
whose privatisation would have been completed by December 2012 and
unless there are intervention funds available, they are dead on arrival.
“Some of the Disco, including Kaduna has received
intervention fund. There is another fund that will be released. We are going to
source funds to do that even though it is not easy. It is like squeezing water
out of stone. We are working very hard to ensure that we minimise incidences of
abandoned projects,” he said
The Minister also assured that the Federal Government was
doing everything possible to revive the Rural Electrification Projects which
was long abandoned, stressing that the government was injecting money into the
projects to ensure the provision of electricity to the rural consumers.
The Minister also commissioned the Gonin-Gora 7.5 KVE
Injection Sub-station, Ungwan Mauzu National Integrated Power Project (NIPP),
Abakpa power plant station and the Zaria Injection Sub-station and inspected
the Kudenda Power Plant Station.
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