Re: Katsina wind farm: N4.4bn down the drain, yet zero electricity

T he publication appears to be a blindfolding cynosure possibly intended to ridicule the efforts of the present administration and our company who has been saddled to handle the completion and commissioning of the project. Until we run away from being a brooding country, this country shall continue to entertain inciting publication rather than investigative […]

T

he publication appears to be a blindfolding cynosure possibly intended to ridicule the efforts of the present administration and our company who has been saddled to handle the completion and commissioning of the project. Until we run away from being a brooding country, this country shall continue to entertain inciting publication rather than investigative journalism.

It may interest the public to know that the major setback for the completion and commissioning of the project in predicated by insecurity situation of the country that led to the kidnapping of the

French commissioning Engineer-Francis Kollomp in 2012.

Engineer Francis Kollomp was in captivity for over a year and the project suffered untold hardship more so that the project was at its completion stage when the handling company-Vergnet of France declared Force Majeure.

If anything, the government of the day has frantically taken bold steps to see to the final completion and commissioning of the project.

The effort has been gallantly driven by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola (SAN). To this end, after several meetings with all stakeholders on the project, the ministry came to the conclusion to relieve the foreign contractors M/S Vergnet of France the responsibility of continuing with the project.

The contract was finally terminated and re-awarded to Crown Resources Development Company Limited (CREDCO) having shown convincing competence. The contract was signed in December 2018 after going through strenuous bureaucracy of government as the ministry needed to get the ‘Certificate of No Objection’ from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) before going to the Federal Executive Council for final approval, this process took several months to reach finality.

After the approval of the Federal Executive Council, CREDCO began the process of onshore and offshore procurement in February 2019 bearing in mind that most of them are not off the shelves, meaning they have to be purpose manufactured with specific codes.

While these processes began, the site engineers of CREDCO have been extremely preoccupied with rewiring, calibrating and fixing damaged parts using the onshore materials already procured.

Presently, seven new turbines are up which is an addition to the earlier 15 turbines CREDCO commissioned, bringing a total of 22 turbines ready for commissioning. More are coming progressively as ordered offshore materials are received.

From the forgoing, it is not too far to conclude that the reportage on the project as contained in your paper of April 28, 2019 failed to trace the evolution of the project right from the period the contract was re-awarded to CREDCO. It may not be out of place to state that the tenets of investigative journalism which should have enlightened the public properly have not been respected.

Finally, during political period such as ours, any effort of the present administration towards providing developmental infrastructure to any community should be encouraged by the press instead of engaging on inciting or discrediting reportage, anything short of that is an apogee of mischief to the government and the contractors handling such projects.

Barny Adeku Ojiah, Managing Director/CEO of Crown Resources Development Company Limited (CREDCO)