Jonathan To Commission Power Projects Before May 29
President Goodluck Jonathan will before May 29 commission completed power projects across the country under the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP).
Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State and Minister of Power, Mr Chinedu Nebo made this known at the end of the last meeting of the Board of Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) Ltd chaired by Vice-President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to Mr Nebo, President Jonathan’s administration has installed a minimum electricity generation capacity of 5,500 megawatts.
He, however, regretted that government was losing N120 million monthly, totaling N1.5 billion yearly on the repairs of vandalised pipelines.
He said the continuous vandalisation of oil and gas pipelines by vandals which occurred every two weeks was also making the country to lose about 1,600 megawatts of electricity each time they strike.
He advised the incoming government of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to intensify security surveillance of the petroleum pipelines in the country, adding that the option of digitalised surveillance system should be considered.
On the commissioning of completed projects, the minister said: “Four power plants have been completed and will be commissioned in the next couple of weeks, Sapele is one of them, Ihobor is another one.
And hopefully and by the grace of God, we intend to do the commissioning very soon so that Nigerians will enjoy even more the benefits of what the current administration has done in the power sector. There are literally hundreds of other projects that need to be commissioned. So very soon we are going into commissioning exercise”.
Corroborating what Nebo said, Benue state governor, Suswam who is also a member of the Board said, “The board resolved to commission some of the numerous projects under the NIPP programme. Those projects are to be commissioned in the subsequent weeks”.
Apart from the new power plants, he explained that the government has completed more transmission lines but would not be able to complete some sales transactions because of some complications in the bid process and inadequate gas supply.
Managing Director of the NDPHC, James Olotu, said the Company’s 2013/2014 Statement of Accounts is now ready for anyone who wants audit to ascertain the financial activities and current status of NDPHC.
