Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), South-West zone, has appealed to Oyo State government and Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to resolve the land use charge crisis between them, saying it is affecting its members.
Chairman of MAN in the zone, Mr Lanre Popoola, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday that the power outage in the last four days, occasioned by the land use charge crisis, had left many manufacturing industries inoperative.
NAN reports that Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) had, on Sunday, issued a statement notifying its customers of the power outage due to the sealing off of the Ayede sub-station of TCN over non-payment of land use charge.
The communities affected by the development, according to IBEDC, include: Oloruntumo, Logudu, LEO Community, Owode Estate, Orisunbare area, Oladele Estate, Osembele, Omi Adio, Orile-llugun, Ido, Alako, Ilaju, Eruwa, Lanlate, Igboora, Idere, Ayete, Tapa and Igangan.
Others are: Podo, Boluwaji, Odo-Ona Elewe, Ayegun Oleyo, Challenge, Ijebu-Ode road, Toll Gate, New Garage, Molete and Idi-Ayunre, while Podo, Soka, Boluwaji, Best Oil, Black Horse and Aramed feeders are also impacted.
Popoola said that the association had reached out to the state government through the Commissioner for Land on the issue.
“The commissioner informed us that the state government had asked TCN to make a commitment on how to ensure the payment of the charge,” he said.
The MAN chairman decried the dilly-dallying approach between the state government and TCN, adding that nothing had yet to be done and that all the affected companies were out of electricity supply, with no end in sight.
“We as manufacturers are now pleading, as our people have been running on generating sets. How long can we go before the companies start to shut down? I can’t say.
“We are begging TCN to help us out on this issue,” he said.
Popoola said that he had met with the Managing Director of IBEDC and that efforts had also been made to discuss with TCN.
“All they told us was that they were waiting for response from their headquarters in Abuja but up till now, we have not gotten any genuine response,” he said.
When NAN visited the TCN sub-station at Ayede in Ibadan, the gate was under lock and key, with the “Zeal” sign conspicuously hanged on it.
Meanwhile, IBEDC has attributed recent power outage in some parts of Ibadan, the Oyo State to the lockdown of the Ayede Transmission Station by the Oyo State government.
Confirming the development to Nigerian Tribune, spokesperson for the IBEDC, Busolami Tunwase said it had to let out the statement as it could not get the needed pass to fix faults and work on feeders due to the lockdown of the Ayede Transmission Station.
Speaking, she said the IBEDC could not get the needed pass to work from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which, she said, was best positioned to speak about the reason for the lockdown.
Tunwase said: “You would have to call TCN about the lockdown. The only reason we sent out the post telling our customers about the situation is because we cannot access the areas that we need to.
“If there is any fault, we’ll not be able to get the pass. You know it’s a value chain, you can’t just start working on feeders. You need to get a pass from TCN to be sure that everything is well. So, we couldn’t get that.”
Speaking on the situation, the Oyo State Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mr Dotun Oyelade said the state government had been in long-standing negotiations with the IBEDC over the issue of unpaid bills.
He said the state government was keen on amicable resolution of the issue as he said all parties involved are expected to fulfill their obligations.
Oyelade said: “The state government has been in negotiations with IBEDC for a long while over unpaid bills.
“As it stands today, plans are afoot to resolve the issue amicably while government expects all sides to do the needful.
“It is uppermost in our mind that our people do not suffer innocently.”
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