Power: Ortom hails Buhari

Governor Samuel Ortom has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for giving attention to the power sector.

The Governor who spoke Tuesday, January 11th, 2022 at the Benue Peoples House Makurdi after listening to the Minister of Power, Engineer Abubakar Aliyu said he was enlightened given the details of what the Federal Government was doing in the power sector in the state.

He however said “you can do more to improve the power generation of Nigeria. Hon Minister I am happy listening to you give these details. I am personally enlightened. And this is commendable. When there is electricity, there will be massive recruitment in industries.”

While advocating for synergy between the Federal, States and Local Governments towards funding of the power sector, he said his administration is ready to support other initiatives to boost the improvement of the power sector in the state because “electricity is key to industrilisation.”

Governor Ortom stated that since the inception of the Buhari-led administration in 2015, he had identified power and security as priority areas to encourage local and foreign investment in the economy.

He said his administration remains committed to supporting federal projects especially those that bother on harnessing economic potentials of the state, stressing that it was in the light of this that he had intervened for the transmission lines to pass through communities requesting for compensation to the substation.

The Governor commended the improvement the Ministry of Power has achieved in the provision of electricity, describing it as an opportunity for the minister, Engineer Aliyu to write his name in gold.

He then appealed to the Federal Ministry of Power to stop Distribution Companies, DISCOs from shifting the cost of procuring electricity infrastructure to customers.

The Governor explained that DISCOs as essential service providers collect money from customers in form of bills and should use same to procure and or repair transformers and other electrical infrastructure for use by customers instead of leaving the responsibility to the end users.

He particularly acknowledged co-operation of the senator representing Benue North East and chairman Senate Committee on power, Dr Gabriel Suswam for the progress recorded in the sector.

The Minister of Power, Engineer Aliyu informed the Governor earlier that they were in the state to inspect work on the Yandev Power Substation, a trajectory of Kashimbila Power Generation Dam.

He said first phase of the work which is upgrading of the substation has been completed and will be able to generate 40 Mega watts of electricity to boost power supply in parts of the state.

According to him, phase two of the project which has reached forty percent was to carry the transmission lines from Yandev to Makurdi and other parts of the state.

The minister who was accompanied by the Minister of State for Power, Goody Agba and other officials said the project was part of efforts of the Federal Government to shore up power generation and distribution in the country.

He stated that the upgrading and strengthening of the national grid has reduced system collapse to the barest minimum.