29th February, 2024
By Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja
Governor Alex Otti has explained his contributions to the realisation of the 181-megawatt geometric power plant which was commissioned to serve the commercial city of Aba and some other parts of the State last Monday by Vice President Kashim Shettima.
Speaking on Channels television programme on Wednesday, the government explained his involvement in the realisation of the project started in 2004 as a top banker and from when he assumed office as governor on 29, May, 2023.
Otti was, however, categorical that he has no evidence that his immediate predecessor invested the State’s fund in the project as being insinuated by some officials of the administration.
Otti, said his involvement in the project began when as an Executive Director a First Bank in 2010, he was approached by the owner of Geometrics Power Limited and ex-Minister for Scienjce and Technology, Bart Nnaji to help fund the project. He said this was after the bank that was funding it pulled out as a result of global economic crisis.
According to the Abia Governor, he was able to process an $85m facility for Geometric Power Project then. But he noted that the the Board of First Bank stopped the company from draw the facility because he was proceeding to Diamond Bank as CEO. According to him, the Board felt it won’t make any sense to allow the country to withdraw the facility when the person that was going to manage it was not there.
“I headed to Diamond Bank which actually was the bank that was initially funding the project. On getting to Diamond Bank, we restructured the facility and saw it to completion by October 2014, the time I left Diamond Bank.
But he added that a lot of other factors stalled the realisation of the Geometric Power Project even after then. He listed the factors to include the sale and resale of the Aba Invest Island as well as sale of the major oil block that was supposed to provide power to the plant by Shell
Otti said when he assumed power in 2023, he initiated move to settle the gas problem.
“By the time we took over on the 29th of May, we sat down with Geometric a few times and engaged with NNPC and NNPC deployed their partners and gas was made available.”
Otti said Geometric Power Project, the first integrated electricity facility in Nigeria located in the Osisioma industrial hub of Aba in Abia with its current capacity of 141 megawatts power has the capacity to ensure that blackouts became a thing of the past in the state.
“Power outage will the exception rather than the rule which is the situation at this time,” said Otti.
“I have set up a team to dig into the facts,” the Governor said while stating that it would be difficult to say that his predecessor, Okezie Ikpeazu was involved in the realisation of the project.
Nnaji, had at a media briefing few days before inauguration of the Geometric Power Plant also assured assured of providing reliable power supply to Aba Ring-Fenced Area (RFA) by third week of March 2024.
Nnaji co-hosted the briefing with the Abia Commissioner for Power and Public Utilities, said the first turbine which would start functioning fully after the IPP’s inauguration on Feb.26 will not yet provide reliable power supply to the RFA.
According to him, the Aba IPP is Nigeria’s only integrated power project which had its own embedded power plant enabling it to generate and distribute its own power.
“We have about four brand new power stations not yet connected to our network and at this moment, our infrastructure are adequate to carry our supply.
“Geometric Power Limited (GPAL), has invested almost $800m in the integrated power project, making it by far the largest investment in the Southeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria”, he said.