FG begins restoration of electricity to over 2,000 Ondo communities

Relief has come to over 2,000 communities in the South Senatorial District of Ondo State as the Federal Government began re-commissioning test of the massive electricity projects in the area after years of disconnection from the national grid.

Executive Director of Engineering and Technical Services, Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), Ife Oyedele, disclosed this at a media parley with journalists in Akure.

According to him, it is certain that the people of these areas will have power supply soon because the re-electrification projects have been completed in the affected communities.

The communities are situated in four local councils of the district namely: Okitipupa, Irele, Ese-Odo and Ilaje, while the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), which disconnected the community in December 2014, argued that the consumers were owing N2 billion.

Oyedele, however, noted that some communities had been plunged into darkness for over 12 years before the 2014 incident, assuring that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo would soon commission the projects.

In another development, the Ondo State Executive Council (SEC) has re-awarded the 28.5kilometres Aboto/Atijere road in Ilaje Local Council of the state for N8 billion.

The project was inherited from the immediate past administration, which had awarded the contract for N12 billion on a contractor/client financing arrangement.

Special Adviser to the Governor on Lands, Works and Infrastructure, Aminu Raimi, while briefing journalists after the SEC meeting yesterday, said the state government after the re-appraisal of the project, saved N4 billion by re-awarding it for N8 billion.

Raimi also disclosed that some school projects in Ikorigho Ugbo in Ilaje Local Council, which were to be constructed as model schools, would now be constructed as classroom blocks with a concrete walkway.