Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has said the vision of the state is to be the first among the comity of states in the country to attain energy sufficiency.
He said this remains his aspiration going by his personal professional experience as an electrical engineer and in the spirit of the new law that empowers the state government in the country to generate and distribute power.
Makinde spoke yesterday at the commissioning of electrical transformers and restoration of electricity at Idi Obi/Jigan/Kure/Olorunda Ogunsola and environs donated by a philanthropist Dotun Sanusi.
The event was Makinde’s first outing after his inauguration for a second term in office.
The governor commended Sanusi for the donations among other gestures he is doing for the people of the state, urging other people with resources and means to make a positive impact in the lives of the less privileged in the society.
He faulted the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) for selling meters to the residents to generate income, urging the company to see how they would allow the residents to benefit from the investments in the infrastructures provided by Sanusi in the form of mild billings and electricity usage.
Makinde said, “Today it’s exactly one week that Omituntun 2.0 started and this is my first outing. Let me thank my people from Ona Ara, you are worthy.
“If you look at the result of the election in 2023, we defeated the opposition by 24,000 votes. I am very grateful. This is an opportunity to come back home and from the bottom of my heart to express our appreciation, myself and my deputy, for your support.
“We are here to commission this gigantic project. It is not here alone that the transformer is, the one here is about 500KVA. Also, in Idi-Obi around that place, there is another one there of about 300KVA.“
What is important is that there are people of means that have the money and resources. But, they will rather keep the resources for only themselves and their families.
“But Engineer Dotun Sanusi, not only did he install transformers linking almost eight communities here and another five communities on the other side, but also the infrastructures, the cables, the poles and everything he provided.
“What did we observe, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company came to install meters here to generate money from here.
“Well, we will not tell them that they will not collect money but they will tell us the money for the cables and poles installed here, how will they give people and allow them to use it to pay discounted rates as bills so that we will recover that money that they didn’t spend,’’ he said.
Earlier about the project, the donor, Sanusi commended Makinde for the effort at improving the state, adding that he usually makes engineers proud.
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