Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
A group, Edo Leaders of Thought, has stepped into the crisis rocking the Ossiomo Power Plant and the Edo State Government as it relates to the ownership claims and rates.
The group in its statement signed by Momodu Adams, its Coordinator, said that it undertook a private, independent investigation into the feud and its findings revealed “troubling patterns of opacity, inflated costs, and questionable practices that demand answers
“From our investigations, it is clear that the Edo State Government has zero stake in Ossiomo Power Company Limited. The company is 100 percent privately owned. The challenges facing Ossiomo are purely internal and have also affected government and private subscribers alike, with the Edo State Government itself often being a victim of these disruptions.”
According to the group, “the arrangement between the State and Ossiomo was inherited by the present administration of Governor Monday Okpebholo. Though hailed by the immediate past government of Mr. Godwin Obaseki as an innovation, in reality, it was riddled with inflated bills, fluctuating tariffs, and deliberate opacity.
“For the entirety of Mr. Obaseki’s tenure, Edo State Government facilities were never metered. Instead, they operated on post-paid estimated billing, under which millions of naira were paid monthly without verifiable evidence of actual consumption. Meters were only hurriedly installed in September 2024, immediately after the electoral defeat of his party and barely two months before he left office.”
Going further, the civil society organisation maintained that “between January and November 2024 alone, over N5 billion was paid to Ossiomo by the Obaseki administration for government establishments. Monthly charges ranged from N308 million to as high as N718 million. The highest bills, N673 million in September, N718 million in October, and N474 million in November, were incurred immediately after Obaseki’s party electoral defeat and just before his exit.”
The group said that “the tariffs were not only exorbitant but unstable. Records show that Ossiomo charged wildly fluctuating rates between N99.97/kWh and N236.78/kWh, with no consistency from month to month. By contrast, BEDC, a regulated distribution company, maintained predictable tariffs: N68/kWh until April 2024, later adjusted to N225/kWh.
“In contrast, Governor Okpebholo introduced reforms that changed the narrative. He ordered the installation of prepaid meters across government establishments, ending the opaque billing system. Today, government facilities pay Ossiomo an average of N199 million for every 45-day cycle, a drastic reduction from as high as N700 million monthly outflows under Obaseki. With prepaid metering now in place, consumption is verifiable, billing is transparent, and payments are reduced by over 75 percent.”
The group continued, “between January and November 2024 alone, the Obaseki administration paid Ossiomo over N5 billion. In contrast, within the first nine months of Governor Okpebholo’s tenure (December 2024 to August 2025), the State has spent only N1.55 billion on electricity providers; N1.2 billion to Ossiomo and N345 million to BEDC.
“This disparity raises troubling questions. Why did the Obaseki administration deliberately refuse to meter government establishments for years? Why was Edo State locked into a billing regime where billions were paid without accountability?
“What was Obaseki’s true interest in Ossiomo, a private company, that justified such extraordinary state patronage? And why was the entire electricity supply of the State surrendered to one company in a manner that suppressed competition and transparency?”