IPP at Onaolapo

Funsho Balogun

Three years ago, when the residents of Ona Opepo street, Abule Tailor, at Abule Egba area in Lagos were told by those handling the power plant project situated on a fenced plot of land (numbered 31) on the street that they would soon witness improved electricity supply, after the commissioning of the project before the year’s end, they all heaved a sigh of relief. There could be no better news for these people who have been complaining for years that they only get about three day’s supply of electricity in a month. But their hopes and expectations were dashed. In fact, electricity supply to the area has worsened, crippling business activities and inflicting a higher measure of distress on the dwellers.

Worse still, they have since been kept in the dark about the facility that appears to have been installed, but is yet to function as expected to ease the pains of the consumers. People living on Ona Opepo street that spoke with TheNEWS claim that the power distribution plant project commenced over a decade ago, and since then they have observed that not less than six contractors have worked on the same facility at different times over the years.

“They have been coming and going, and because of the impression that that they are from Abuja, working on behalf of the Energy Ministry, we did not even know how to approach them in the first instance for any information,” says Daramola Olaleye, who has been living on Ona Opepo street for the past 15 years.

IPP office at Onaolapo

According to Timothy Ogundare, Secretary of the Abule Tailor, Olowu Community Development Association, CDA the, trend has been that the contractors would appear with containers supposedly filled with equipment and materials to be installed, but these are removed and taken away eventually, with one contactor after the other disappearing from the site. “I will term their activities ‘supply and removal.’ Three years ago, those working on the project told us, the CDA officials, that the facility would be ready and commissioned in the next six months, and we passed the message across to our people, collecting money from them to put our roads in better shape in readiness for the commissioning. But they have succeeded in turning us into liars,” Ogundare said.

In terms of electricity supply, people living in Abule Tailor area have never had it good. The wooden electric poles and the wires that were paid for by the Landlords on Ona Opepo street about twenty years ago are still standing, but they are mostly in dilapidated state. Overloaded transformers blow up on the street on a regular basis. Yet, electricity bills here have kept rising. ‘’Estimated monthly bills for even the smallest houses are never less than N6,500, and pre-paid meters have not been made available,” says Bashiru Lawal, who lives in a rented, modest apartment on Ona Opepo street. Dwellers on Gbenga Olaniyan and Abiodun Aina Streets within Abule Taylor area told a similar tale.

Njoku told TheNEWS that the 15MVA capacity power distribution plant will be commissioned and handed over to the distribution company in the next six weeks. ‘’ The plant is for distribution and not generation or transmission,” he said.

At the Ikeja Electric Abule Tailor Undertaking office, Johnson Alisi, the Undertaking Manager said the Energy Ministry is in a better position to state the real situation concerning the power project and the reason for the perceived delay in the completion. ‘’Until government finishes and hands over to us, we cannot talk much about it,” the Undertaking Manager said.

However, while speaking for Njonas Engineering Company Limited, handlers of the project on Ona Opepo street, Elvis Njoku, the Director of Administration claimed that the contract was awarded in 2007 by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, and not over 10 years ago as some of those residing in the area said. He said the project was put on hold for a while when the Yar’Adua administration took over. ‘’They were not sure it would continue and there were also issues of counterpart funding that had to be sorted out. It took almost two years before we continued. We also had to place orders for things abroad that had to be manufactured to specification and tested by engineers before being shipped into the country,” Njoku said.

He disclosed further that Njonas Engineering Company has completed similar projects in Igando, Ijegun, Iju-Opeilu and Adaranijo areas in Lagos which have since become functional. According to him, the projects could not be rushed because at different stages, consultants had to be invited in to make reports and confirm that work was in order before continuation.

Njoku told TheNEWS that the 15MVA capacity power distribution plant will be commissioned and handed over to the distribution company in the next six weeks. ‘’ The plant is for distribution and not generation or transmission,” he said.