The non-availability of power supply has halted activities in Edo State Government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs)’s offices, including health facilities and other areas of public interest for days now in Benin City.
Investigations revealed that the power outage was a result of the non-supply of gas to the Ossiomo Power Company which has been supplying electricity to government buildings, street lights, some private homes, courts, the Edo State Industrial Hub, where several Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) operate, as well as the Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the operational base of journalists residents in Benin City, the Edo State capital.
Private operators at the Government owned Industrial Hub narrated their ordeals to journalists, noting that they have lost fortunes occassioned to the power outage which entered its fourth day on Friday.
A private frozen food dealer at the Industrial Hub expressed, “I have lost so much running into millions of naira. We were forced to bury our frozen products that had become unfrozen and were rottening away because we depended on this Ossiomo light.”
Notably, reports had it that medical surgeries had to be postponed at Edo State Government owned health facilities like Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in the state capital, the Edo State Specialist Hospital (ESH) along Sapele Road, and other health facilities.
Interestly, there was evident anxiety at the NUJ press centre as the premises was out of water supply which led to its leadership instructing that all bathrooms and toilets in the complex should be permanently locked because of lack of running water.
Evidently, most journalists could not perform their jobs effectively because their phones and laptops were out of power, and some resulted to approaching nearby hotels to power their work tools, because it was necessary that they develop, process and send reports.
A staff of Ossiomo Power laid the blame at the feet of the gas supplier, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited (NPDC), a subsidiary of the NNPCL.
“We are not suspecting sabotage though but the situation is that we have different oil mining licenses in this country supplying gas. Right now, about the biggest one is OML 34 in Oben operated by Seplat, compare the performance of Seplat at Oben and the performance of NPDC at Ologbo, the gas is there, the oil is there, the resources are there. It is just who is managing the resources, maintaining and operating them, that is where the challenge is.
“For example, we had a challenge in one of our substations and NPDC brought archaic materials that put everybody at risk and we had to buy the equipment which is not our role. This has gone on for four days and if you ask them, they won’t even tell you but it has to do with competence.”
The9JaTREND reports that when her correspondent visited NPDC headquarters at Ogba Road, in Benin City, a senior personnel in the operations department said he cannot speak officially for the company. However, the NPDC personnel explained, “I have been able to reach the engineer who is working to fix the problem and he assured the issue will be resolved before Sunday.”
