‘Sokoto 16-year-old IPP to commence operation in 6 months’
Sokoto State’s Independent Power Plant will commence operation in the next six months, its coordinating consultant, Mr Theo Ubani, has assured. Ubani, who conducted the commissioner for energy and some newsmen round the plant on Wednesday, said the project was completed and currently at the evacuation stage. “We are right now interfacing with the Ministry […]
Sokoto State’s Independent Power Plant will commence operation in the next six months, its coordinating consultant, Mr Theo Ubani, has assured.
Ubani, who conducted the commissioner for energy and some newsmen round the plant on Wednesday, said the project was completed and currently at the evacuation stage.
“We are right now interfacing with the Ministry of Power and other relevant ministries and agencies on how the power to be generated by the plant would be evacuated and distributed.
“We have checked all the equipment and assessed the state of their readiness. We are optimistic that the plant will commence operation even before the six months given to us by the state government,” he reassured.
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Also speaking, the state Commissioner for Energy, Alhaji Sunusi Danfulani, said the plant would have been ready by now but for the activity of vandals who destroyed some cables and equipment running into millions of naira.
According to him, some of the vandals had been arrested and currently serving prison terms.
He, however, criticised the previous government for neglecting the project.
The 38 megawatts capacity project was awarded in 2008 to a US-based energy company, Vulcan Capital Energy, at the initial cost of N3.8 billion with the completion period of six months.
The deadline was later shifted to September 2009 and December 2010 before it was fixed for July 2011.
Similarly, the completion period was further rescheduled for September, 2013 before it was extended to August 2014, then November 2016 and December 2019 respectively.
Daily Trust gathered that, another N1.7 billion was injected into the project in 2020 by the Governor Aminu Tambuwal-led government and the present government approved another N950 million for its completion a few weeks ago.