From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
To boost power supply in Asaba and environs, Delta State Government has approved the development of a 8.5 mega watts Integrated Power Project (IPP) to be executed through the Public-Private-Partnership model.
According to the state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Patrick Ukah, the partnership is with Bastan-Cherry Power Solutions Limited, and it will generate 8.5 mega watts to power government establishments, estates and infrastructure.
Mr. Ukah said the project was intended to improve power supply in Asaba and its environs, stressing that government would only provide guarantee to utilize the 8.5MVA generated for a period of ten years.
Explaining further, Commissioner for Power and Energy, Mr. Newworld Safugha, stated that the project would be beneficial to Deltans as it would not only generate jobs for the youths but also reduce electricity tariffs paid by government, and in turn improve electric supply in Asaba.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ukah has denied threatening to resign his appointment as Commissioner for Information, describing publications in a section of the media (Daily Sun not included) as mischievous.
In a statement signed by the commissioner’s Media Assistant, Mr. Sam Ijeh said the reaction became necessary in order to disabuse the minds of the unsuspecting public “and the friends and associates of the Commissioner who have besieged his office with calls since the report was published.”
Ijeh said the report about his boss threatening to resign was “baseless, unfounded and tendentious,” which “exists only in the figment of the imagination” of the author, insisting that the was intended to cause disaffection in the government of Delta State.
“In the first place, the Ministry of Information has not been split into two, and as such no new ministry has been created. The Governor just recently approved the creation of a Directorate of Orientation out of the Department of Orientation in the Ministry to be headed by his Senior Special Assistant, Orientation and Social Mobilisation now renamed Executive Assistant.
“Secondly, the moving of the ICT Department and Website to the Government House had occurred before Mr. Ukah was appointed Commissioner in charge of the ministry. And we all know the proximity and interdependency of the website and the ICT Department.
“That the two are housed in the same place was to ensure efficiency in their operations and engender better coordination. In the light of the foregoing, Mr. Ukah could not have contemplated, let alone threaten, resignation,” it explained.