Kebbi State Governor Dr Nasir Idris has suggested the constitution of a committee of enquiry to figure out the main cause of fire incident at Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) substation in Birnin Kebbi.
On Thursday night, September 14, a fire outbreak had destroyed one 90MVA (330KV/132KV) and a 60MVA (132KV/33KV) transformers supplying Kebbi, Sokoto and part of Zamfara States electricity which was valued at 4 million US Dollars.
Speaking shortly after inspecting the affected facilities at the TCN station in Birnin Kebbi, Governor Idris stated that investigation became necessary to avoiding recurrence of such ugly development.
According to him, “if the committee found any staff wanting such staff should be brought to book to serve as deterrent to others.
“Unconfirmed reports revealed that the fire outbreak was as a result “hording of power’ which bursted due to over storage. What we supposed to get is not what we have been given.
“Our people are paying for the services and it’s just like social contract, if you supply our people will pay, there is no doubt about it.”
The governor noted that there was a time they he sat down with Executive Director from Kaduna Electric and they reached an agreement that led to improvement in power supply then.
“After sometimes the supply dropped. May be that’s why people are insinuating that you are hording the light,” he noted.
The governor who appreciated the TCN management for taken quick steps to ensure that light was resorted back to Kebbi and its neighbouring states, said, already directives had been given to Ministry of Water Resources as well as Advisers on Power and Environment to make contingency arrangement on supply of diesel to power engines at Water Board for supply of water to Kebbi residents.
“We don’t want a situation where this problem will lead to suffering of our people. We want people to enjoy supply of potable water to avoid outbreak of diseases,” he noted.
He commended the efforts of State and Federal Fire Service for their sustained efforts and commitment to put out the fire despite numerous challenges.
Governor appealed to people of Kebbi to be patient as the TCN engineers and other technical staff were busy working round the clock to restore power to Kebbi and its neighbours.
NwokeAgulu
