Governor Nasir Idris of Kebbi on Saturday called for the establishment of a committee of enquiry to ascertain the cause of the fire incident at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) substation in Birnin Kebbi.

Mr Idris made the call shortly after inspecting the affected facilities in Birnin Kebbi, along with the Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Tanko-Sununu.

A fire outbreak on Thursday night destroyed a 90 MVA (330KV/132KV) and a 60 MVA (132KV/33KV) transformers valued at $4 million.

The two transformers are supplying Kebbi, Sokoto and part of Zamfara.

The governor said the investigation was necessary to prevent the recurrence of the ugly incident.

“If the committee found any staff wanting, such staff should be brought to book to serve as a deterrent to others,” he said.

He said that an unconfirmed report had blamed the fire incident on the hoarding of the power supply, leading to a high volume of voltage that the transformers could contain, thereby causing them to burst into flames.

He alleged that Kebbi was not getting the amount of energy due to it.

“Our people are paying for the services, and it’s just like a social contract, if you supply, our people will pay; there is no doubt about it,” he added.

The governor acknowledged some level of improvement in electricity supply in recent times after he held a meeting with the executive director of Kaduna Electric and reached an agreement.

He, however, said that after some time, the supply dropped, “maybe that is why people are insinuating that you are hoarding the light.”

He commended the TCN management for taking prompt measures to restore electricity in Kebbi and its neighbouring states.

To mitigate the power outage on the water supply, the governor said he had directed the Ministry of Water Resources and his Adviser on Power and Environment to make contingency arrangements for the diesel supply.

He explained that the diesel would be used to power engines at the state Water Board to supply water to Kebbi residents.

The governor also commended the efforts of the state and federal fire services for professionalism in putting out the fire despite visible challenges of equipment and logistics.

He promised to allocate money to repair the state fire service vehicles to enable them to discharge their duties effectively and efficiently.

 (NAN)