By Ibrahim Hassan-Wuyo

Kaduna – The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu has said that the Kudenda Power Project in Kaduna would be completed before the first quarter of next year, and an additional 215 megawatts of power would be added to the national grid.

He said the Kaduna power plant project at Kudenda was awarded in 2010- that is 13 years ago, but the project was stalled due to legal issues.

The Minister spoke to journalists in Kaduna on Tuesday at the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KedCo) after an inspection tour of the Kudenda project.

Adelabu who assured of the government’s determination to finally complete the project, recalled that “in 2018, the project was almost 87 per cent completed. But several legal issues involved the contractors that made the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to intervene and there was a stoppage in the project.”

He explained that “over five years now, until we came in, this administration resolved these issues and the contractors are back on site.”

“That is why I visited the place to discuss the plans for completion with the contractor and also to discuss with the consultants and the intervention required from the ministry to accelerate the completion of the project before the first quarter of next year, that project is going to be completed and an additional 215 megawatts of power would be added to the national grid,” he assured.

Chief Adelabu said “One of the issues we discussed is vandalisation and power theft.
Vandalisation is the deliberate destruction of power assets, especially transmitting power assets, high voltage cables and transformers, which we believe have affected the stability of electricity in the country, especially in the North.”

“We are collaborating with the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), the Ministry of Interior and all security agencies across the country to ensure that this is stopped.”

“I also call on all state governors, especially in the North, to raise to the occasion of threat to security to power assets for us to be able to deliver stable electricity to our people as part of our electoral promises.”

“The people must also be generally vigilant. We have local hunters and vigilantes, and all of us must contribute to the security of transmission power assets and distribution infrastructure. That is the only way we can guarantee a stable supply of electricity to our people,” he said.