Armed gang puts power project in jeopardy

…cart away installation materials at NDPHC

Armed thieves have invaded a con- struction site at Ubakala, Umuahia, Abia State and carted away 10 drums of aluminum conductors being used by a contractor, Energo Nige- ria Limited for the Niger Delta Power Holding Company’s (NDPHC’s) Enugu- Ikot Ekpene 330 KVA transmission lines.

The double transmission lines are meant to evacuate over 2,000 megawatts (MW) of elec- tricity generated by the National Independent Power Plants (NIPPs) at Alaoji (Aba, Abia State), Afam (Port Harcourt, Rivers State) and Calabar (Cross River State).

It was reliably gathered at Ubakala, Umuahia South local government area of Abia State that the unidentified robbers invaded the construc- tion site of Energo Nigeria Limited, the contrac- tor handling Lot 3 of the 330 KVA transmission lines project, and carted away the 10 drums of aluminium conductors.

According to Rastko Pribic, the chief engineer of Energo Nigeria, the cable robbers, who came at about 10.00am on the fateful day (a Sunday), tied up the security man with iron wires in- between two containers.

This was immediately after the policemen providing overnight security had left at about 8.00 am.

Till date, no arrests have been made by the Abia command of the Nigeria Police to which the incident was reported by both the Construc- tion Company and Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC).

Albert Okorogu, the executive director, Net- works at the NDPHC wondered the temerity of the alleged robbers, who he noted, came in full daylight, and carefully loaded away the 10 drums of aluminum conductors, with each drum said to weigh about four tons.

Okorogu lamented that the stealing of the cable, coupled with vandalisation of transmis- sion towers, obstruction of the transmission lines right-of-way (ROW) by individuals and some Federal Government agencies have constituted huge delays in realising the power project, saying.

“Imagine that we have been on this 2 x 330 KVA project since 2009/ 2010. We have faced some of the most difficult challenges like encroachment on the transmission lines right- of-way by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture’s grain silo at Okigwe, even after we have paid compensation on the areas within and around the ROW.

“We’re letting the general public to know the challenges we’ve been facing in completing the power projects,” the executive director stated.

Meanwhile, Claudius Ogunrinde, the general manager in charge of transmission at NDPHC, also informed that there were multiple litigations by some individuals from communities along the 180km stretch of the transmission lines, which runs from Enugu (Enugu State) through Okigwe (Imo State), Umuahia (Abia State) to Ikot Ekpene (Akwa Ibom State).

Ogunrinde said all this constituted the major challenge that has bedevilled the NDPHC 330 KVA transmission lines project.

Meanwhile, another major vandalisation of the transmission lines was a massive hacking down of a fully mounted power tower at Oronta village in Ikwuano local government area of the state.

The tower was to have carried the trans- mission lines to finally loop the Ikot Ekpene bound towers.

But Ikoro Onyebuchi Michael, secretary of the Oronta Development Union said their community has dissociated themselves from the perpetrators of the vandalism; adding that the event had happened on a rainy night last month.

He however, said their community needed an adequate compensation from the NDPHC, like access roads to their newly allocated develop- ment sites.

“We agitate for full compensation to our bushes, forests and access roads,” he said.

The result of all this, is the inability of the Ni- ger Delta Power Holding Company to evacuate huge electricity domiciled in the Eastern region, generated from Enugu, Alaoji, Afam and Calabar power generating stations.

BEN EGUZOZIE, Enugu