The House of Representatives has summoned the Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHD) over the abandoned 252MW Power Plant at Gbarain, Bayelsa.

The resolution followed Oboku Aforji’s (PDP-Bayelsa) motion of urgent public importance during a plenary in Abuja on Thursday.

The lawmaker presented the motion and stated that Gbarain is one of the 23 National Integrated power projects deemed critical infrastructure.

Mr Aforji said this is in the areas of generation, transmission, distribution, and natural gas supply in the electric power value chain subsectors by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

He said that on November 30, 2020, the NDPHC lost the Gbarain power plant’s Power Control Module (PCM) to an inferno. He said the Bayelsa government offered to take some responsibility for the NDPHC since the state was most affected.

He added that mainly as the state-owned Niger Delta University derived its electricity supply from the station.

Mr Aforji said, “Accordingly, the state government undertook rehabilitation and restoration of the power supply through the 60MVA,132/33KV power transformer.”

This, he added, was currently supplying the Gbarain power station auxiliaries and host communities. He said three years down the line, the NDPHC had not been able to live up to their responsibility by replacing the Power Control Module.

Adopting the motion, the house urged Vice-President Kashim Shetima,  chairman of the NDPHC board, to summon an emergency board meeting.

The house called for urgent resuscitation of the Gbarain 252 megawatt power station in Koroama, Bayelsa, to rejig the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC).

The house also referred the motion to the Committee on Power for further legislative action. 

(NAN)