Delta State Commissioner for Power and Energy, Jerry Ehiwerio has called on the BEDC to quickly restore faulty electricity transformers to help curb the issues of vandals stealing their parts in the state.
The power and energy Commissioner said this while interacting with journalists in his office at the Prof Chike Edozien State Secretariat on Wednesday.
He said since the governor came on board, he (Oborevwori) has sent out transformers to various communities both in the rural and urban areas across the state and also provided streetlights to some of the communities.
Ehiwario said he is very optimist that the Governor, His Excellency, Rt Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori will find a lasting solution to the power sector in the state which is why in the 2024 budget that was recently signed into law, the governor specifically prioritized the sector to cater to the power disaster in the state as a bid to actualize his M.O.R.E Agenda.
Although, Ehiwario frowns over the issues of electricity transformers vandalization happening in the state but said the prioritization of the power sector in the state is a matter of maximum importance to the governor in actualizing the M.O.R.E Agenda, stating that it does not mean that the government will provides a special security for surveillance of the power infrastructures in the state rather, the government can only provide maximum security to protect the lives of citizens and properties.
According to him, there might be a lack of security coverage for some of these infrastructures but he believes that there are no security agencies that will see someone ravaging power infrastructure and fold their hands.
He said one of the challenges of security agencies in the country is that they lack manpower that will enable them to overseas these challenges, explaining that in due time some of these challenges will be resolved.
Ehiwario said “When you get to the Western world, there are no special security agencies assigned to the power sector to curb vandalization. When there is enough security in place, you will see some balance.
“We want to appeal that the residents should try to protect their Transformers from vandals because when these infrastructures are not working, they are very easy to be noticed by these destroyers and they will likely go closer.
“Most of these infrastructures, the government might have spent a lot of money to provide them and if they are faulty, it is the responsibility of the BEDC to come restore it so that vandals do not vandalize it.
“I urged the residents to always report faulty transformers to the distribution company to facilitate quick restoration, instead of waiting for months.”
“The governor, Rt Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori has already prioritized the power sector in the 2024 budget that was recently signed into law, and very soon a lot of things will be in progress in most of the communities because Oborevwori, the governor is committed to doing more.”
“There are so many communities that the government is going to touch, so many local government areas will be impacted.”
