Vice-President Namadi Sambo has expressed concern over the spate of vandalism of gas and oil facilities in parts of the country. Sambo, who spoke yesterday during the joint meeting of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company and National Council of Privatisation, NDPHC/ NCP, at the State House, Abuja said the activities of vandals have impacted negatively on the output of electricity supply in the country.
He said the aim of the administration is to achieve 10, 000MW of electricity by 2014 and 20, 000MW by 2016. He therefore appealed to every Nigerian to support the effort. On the issue of power outage in the country, Sambo said he has asked the Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Maduake and her counterpart in the power sector, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, to inform Nigerians whenever maintenance is carried out and such maintenance should be done in a way it would not affect power supply. The board also considered and approved some prayers put before it.
Earlier, the Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam, who is also the Chairman of the Joint Technical Committee, briefed the meeting on the report of the Expression of Interest, EoI, and said the committee received 110 submissions of EoI and passed 82, amounting to about 386 EoI on various plants.
Suswam said: "We have about 46 consortia that were shortlisted for Bariam power plant; we have 44 consortia expressed interest that were short listed for Benin, 42 were short listed for Omotosho, 41 for Egbema, 41 for Omoku, 39 for Geregu, 37 for Calabar and 36 for Ogwurode, 30 for Olaoji, 30 for Oloronshogo, making 386 in all."
The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, also briefed the meeting on the effect of vandalism of gas facilities which, according to him, has affected power output in the country.
He noted that some months ago, the western axis of the gas pipeline leading to the plants in the West were vandalised, resulting in very severe damages and drop in the power supply. He also said a couple of weeks ago, the Akoloma plant in the Eastern axis was vandalised and the damage was extensive.
Nebo lamented that this act of vandalism was the reason for power drop in parts of the country in addition to the low level of water in Kainji, Shiroro and Jebba dams, which need to be properly managed so that power plants can operate.
National Mirror