The Oyo State House of Assembly has summoned the Commissioner for Energy, Mr. Seun Ashamu, personnel of ministry of energy and Oyo State Rural Electrification Board over abandoned and uninstalled transformers across local governments in the State.
The lawmakers during the Tuesday plenary lamented the condition of abandoned transformers procured by the Executive Arm of Government in 2011.
In a motion jointly moved by Hon. Femi Julius Okeyoyin representing Saki-West, Hon. Abiodun Fadeyi Ona Ara and Hon. Kazeem Olayanju representing Irepo/Olorunsogo State Constituencies, the lawmakers noted that electricity is indispensable in the socioeconomic development of the nooks and crannies of the State.
The motion says,”Oyo State has a Ministry of Energy and an agency for Rural Electrification established for the purpose of meeting the electricity needs of the people, while some transformers purchased by the then government with tax players’ money worth Billions of naira are rotting away in different locations of the State.
“The public properties procured with public fund ought to be protected and utilized for the purpose of their acquisition.
“We discovered that they cannot function because the capacity (300KVA – 500KVA) not commensurate with the electricity requirements of the areas they are allocated to.
“We are calling on the executive arm, the concern ministries and agencies to take statistics of all the uninstalled transformers the the respective local governments and work towards installing them where suitable to avoid wastage while our people are suffering.”
The Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Adebo Ogundoyin during the house ruling affirmed that the lawmakers is inviting the concern persons, ministries and agencies to appear on the 5th November, 2019 to give situation report on the issue.
He said, “We have the new ministry of Energy and it is part of their responsibility. We are inviting the Commissioner, the representatives and Oyo state Rural Electrification Board to come and explain to this house while this transform are sitting uninstalled and rotting away.
“When we talk about development in any society, Road, water and electricity are paramount. Therefore, every opportunity to make these available to our people will be taken.”
