From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa and Tony Osauzo, Benin
Elders and traditional rulers from Ijaw communities in the nine states of the Niger Delta region yesterday, alleged that militants were behind fresh bombings in the region.
Bombing of oil facilities in the last few days had raised fresh concerns in the region.
Elders and traditional rulers noted that though the duo of Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu and Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Implementation Committee, Brigadier General Paul Boroh toured some communities in the Niger Delta to consult and secure ceasefire from the militants, some dissidents and their sponsors in the region caused the slow pace and perceived frustration noticed in the take off of the dialogue.
The elders, under the aegis of the Progressive Elders Forum for Peace and Progress (PEFPP), led by Alabo Joseph Whyte, in a statement issued in Yenagoa, expressed shock and bemusement “by claims of some elders from the region accusing Boroh and Kachikwu of frustrating the planned dialogue between the militants and the FederalGovernment. These are wicked and paid elders who have no shame. Most of those involved in the campaign of calumny are failures in those positions they held in the past including the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
“They claimed Boroh discussed with fake militants.
“At least, it confirmed the fact that Boroh is working and doing something on behalf of the president to link the militants with the Federal Government. If they claim he discussed with fake militants after relocating to the creeks, they should be honourable to own up and show us the genuine militants they paid to destroy the region.
Negotiation is always open but the sponsored dissidents have vowed to make the proposed dialogue fail.
“The Federal Government should monitor and investigate theses so-called elders and their sponsors.”
Meanwhile, improved electricity supply being experienced currently in some parts of the country has been attributed to the increase in the level of water, which has pushed up power generation in the three hydro power stations in the country.
Managing Director of Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Mrs Funke Osibodu disclosed this in Benin yesterday when she addressed newsmen as part of a stakeholders’ meeting of the power sector.
She, however, raised the alarm that the continuous blowing up of gas and oil pipelines by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) was capable of plunging the nation into darkness if urgent steps were not taken.
The BEDC boss who spoke through the Edo State Head of the company, Fidelis Obishai, disclosed that the nation achieved about 5,000 megawatts of electricity earlier in the year but the activities of NDA deflated it to 3,000 megawatts.
“Recently we are all aware of the story of the NDA which has affected gas pipelines. In the past two months after we made 5,000 megawatts in this country, from March, April and May, generation dropped to 1,000 megawatts because there is no hydro and the gas pipelines were blown off.
“The three hydro stations we have today are pushing out generation even in the absence of gas pipelines. We do not store power, BEDC is a distribution company, and we distribute what is generated. If there is no generation, I have nothing to distribute and that is the improvement we have seen in some states. And our prayer is that the improvement will be sustained.
“Every Nigerian wants light, but it is important we add that this country is over 160 million people. Today, the latest available for generation is about 3,000 megawatts. For 160 million Nigerians that is a far cry from our requirements. Even on that note, it is difficult to give everybody light 24 hours. But the prayer I want to make is that even that little that we are giving out, let Nigerians pay for that little. If they are not paying for it, it will be difficult for the system to be sustained,” She said.
According to Mrs Osibodu, 315,000 customers of BEDC have pre-paid metres across the four states of Edo, Delta, Ondo and Ekiti under its jurisdiction.
She added that the company inherited 888,000 customers when it took over from PHCN but after weeding out ghost customers, the company now has 745,000 customers across the four states.
On the issue of metering, she disclosed that the company would soon be injecting 100,000 metres in the four states under its jurisdiction, regretting however that “we have 2,000 metres people paid for but they are yet to claim them. But what we are doing is to look for their addresses to ensure that they get their metres.
“We are seriously working hard to ensure that after 45 days you may have paid for the metre, you receive it. We are doing all these to ensure proper and accurate metering for our customers in this region. But our appeal is that people should pay their bills so we can improve on our services,” she stressed.