….As CCETC Ologbo Community Using Our Power Pays Nothing To Us
Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
News making the rounds in some quarters in Benin City said the Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, will soon meet with the warring partners of the Ossiomo Power plant with a view to resolving the burning issues at stake and restores electricity to customers/subscribers in the state.
A high ranking official of the Edo State Government, who confirmed the news of the proposed meeting with the power plant’s partners, expressed optimism that power would be restored after the meeting. “The state governor has called both shareholders to discuss how to resolve the issue. The meeting will be held this week. Maybe after the meeting, we will have good results to restore power.”
The opposing partners are the Ossiomo Power and Infrastructure Company and the Jiangsu Communication Clean Energy Technology Company (CCETC).
Electricity supply to subscribers of the Ossiomo Power was cut on September 1, following the shut down of the plant by the Chinese partners after discovering alleged infractions in their agreement.
Giving details about the establishment of the Ossiomo Power Plant and what led to the disagreement an official of CCETC, said: “We came to Edo State in 2018 and we signed the joint venture agreement with the local partner, the Ossiomo Power and Infrastructure and the equity was 25 percent and 75 percent. The 25 percent is from Ossiomo Power and Infrastructure and its equity is for the land and licences.
“After we signed the JV agreement, Ossiomo was supposed to transfer the generating licence to the CCETC Ossiomo Power Company (COPC). Till today, they did not transfer those licenses to the COPC. They did not follow the JV agreement.
“All the $20 million investment was done by us, including the distribution lines. The distribution lines were built by COPC but the loan is from the CCETC. From the start of the operation, they did not pay the loan and the interest. COPC paid some interests but could not cover the loan.
“Our partner, Dr. Uwa connected some customers along our 33kv lines and the customers paid to the account of Ossiomo E-Technology Company and not to the COPC account.
“The E-Technology is from Ossiomo Power and Infrastructure Company. COPC paid the gas fee and the power fee did not come to the COPC account. The customers did not pay into the COPC account. The E-Tech company will collect N100 million and pay N50 million to the COPC account.
“COPC is generating all the power but has no agreement with the customers using the power. The customers did not pay to the COPC account, which is wrong. We requested the local shareholder to transfer all the customers to the COPC and change the account for collecting payment to the COPC.”
The CCETC official further said the local partner claimed that COPC was not owing the CCETC as it had already paid all the money and that CCETC is a contractor and not a JV partner.
“Instruction to shutdown was because we lost lots of money and did not get any return on investment. We did not collect enough payment from the customers and the power is already going to the customers. We do not know the customers using our power. The customers are not cooperating with us.
“Edo State Government brought nothing. They are our customers, we supply power to them. It is no problem for our customers to go back to the BEDC. This issue did not come from the customers. It is an internal issue. I didn’t want to shut down the power plant but I do not know where my power goes. I don’t know the customers. They only listen to Dr. Uwa and Dr. Uwa tells everybody that it is his power plant. I cannot go and check the customers to know how many kilowatts they have used already.
“He did not invest cash. It is a 100 percent investment by the CCETC. The joint venture agreement with Ossiomo Power and Infrastructure Company is a shareholder of COPC with 25 percent. We have lost a lot. We are generating over four million kilowatts per month but we collect payment for less than two million kilowatts.
“The government has not paid full payment. They are still owing us. The Ologbo community is using our power and they are not paying any kobo. The outstanding is over N1.4 billion. The community was connected by Dr. Uwa and not us. We don’t have any agreement with the community and other customers who are connected to Dr. Uwa. I don’t know where the power goes. How do we generate over four million, without enough payment,” the CCETC official queried.