There has in the last few days been massive rejoicing among manufacturing firms, hotels, schools, hospitals, communities as well as military and police establishments on the 14.5-kilometre road from the Tonimas Petroleum Factory on the Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway to Owerrenta in Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Area and a part of Isiala North Local Government Area both in Abia State. The reason isn't farfetched: they now enjoy electricity, the first since the first quarter of 2021 when the 33KV feeder supplying them electricity was heavily vandalized by unknown criminals.

The restoration was made possible by a new collaboration between the Nigerian Navy, which has its School of Finance and Logistics at Owerrenta , and Geometric Power Limited which has since last February been enfranchised to provide electricity to nine out of the 17 local government areas in Abia State referred to as Aba Ring Fenced Area.

“This is the kind of cooperation needed between critical organizations in the country in these tough times so as to get our nation out of the present development morass and move rapidly in the right direction”, says Anthony Ike Alozie, an accountant and management consultant whose community in Isiala Ngwa North LGA on two occasions almost lost its distribution transformer to vandals when the area was covered by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC). The erstwhile executive with the American oil and gas-servicing giant, Halliburton stated: “My community and I feel inspired by the Navy example to take steps very soon to work with Aba Power, a member of Geometric Power group founded by former Minister Bart Nnaji, to restore power supply to us”.

Among the items viciously vandalized in 2021 and 2022 on the feeder supplying power from the Aba –Port Harcourt Highway to Owerrenta and its environs were 19,000 metres of 150 millimetres square of bare aluminum-conductor with overhead components like 33KV insulators, galvanized channel irons, 33KV tie-straps, bolts and nuts, as well as earthing materials used to protect the lines at intervals. Also the new 33KV Industrial Lines under construction by Geometric to exclusively service industrialists on that axis up to Smurfit Industries by the Imo River in Owrrenta was also vandalized

“These vandals also attacked auxiliaries of distribution transformers”, lamented Engineer Livinus Nmaram, head of Operations and Maintenance at Aba Power Limited (APL). “They frequently carted away in-coming underground copper cables, upriser-cables, XLPE cables and other earthing materials”.

Nmaram remarked that the vandals were so vicious that they used to drain oil from distribution transformers, in some cases opening transformers to steal copper winding wires inside transformers.

Abdullahi Omeh, the head of Engineering at Aba Power Ltd, concurred that the vandals were, indeed, vicious, as they did not care a hoot about throwing whole communities and industrialists into long periods of darkness because of their private benefits. “They were attacking injector substations to take away copper earthing wires”, he stated, citing the example of the Umuode substation in the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba.

“There is also the instance of the injector substation on Port Harcourt Road, Aba, which belongs to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and was attacked by the vandals”.

The secretary of the Southeastern Zone of the Electricity Consumers of Nigeria (ECAN), Engineer Joseph Onyekachi, lauded both the Nigerian Navy and Geometric Power for working round the clock to procure expensive electrical materials on a substantial scale to fix the power crisis in the large swath of place affected by the vandalism for two years. He told journalists in Aba: “It is very reassuring that Geometric Power, which took over the Aba ringed fence only last February from the EEDC and Interstate Electrics has been able to address the grave problem within a short period—of course with immense naval assistance”.

Nmaram expressed pride at not just the rehabilitation of the vandalized parts of the feeder but also the replacement of the stolen materials with superior and state of the art ones. “We didn’t just replace something as mundane as poles with ordinary poles which were there before”, explained Nmaram with scores of years of experience in the power sector where he obtained two university degrees.

“We now use poles with reinforced concrete base which makes it difficult for the poles to be pulled down by wind or vandals. Even the rods on the new poles are far better. We also used standard 150mm all aluminum conductor rather than the regular aluminum conductor”.

Navy’s major contribution to the rehabilitation and restoration of the Owerrenta Feeder has attracted open support of experts like Engr Chike Madueke, a former top official of the Presidential Task Force on Power (PTFP) who is now chairman of Urban FM Radio in Independence Layout, Enugu.

“Nigerians are delighted that the Navy recognizes today’s warfare is not only about military might”, he told newsmen, “but also winning the minds and hearts of the people, as the Vietnam War has taught the whole world. In an era defined by the principle of social responsibility of organizations, the navy has done the right thing”.

University of Lagos Professor Chuka Chukwube has argued that by contributing significantly to the restoration of electricity in the larger society, the Nigerian Navy has “acted in enlightened self-interest. It is far much cheaper to receive electricity from the national grid or public power supply than to self-generate. The cost of procuring power generating sets, maintaining them and purchasing diesel at the rate of almost N800 per litre to run them is prohibitive”.

Geometric Power officers are happy that the School of Finance and Logistics at Owerrenta is not resting on its laurels. “It has pledged to cooperate very well with Geometric Security Services to protect all the electricity facilities in the host community”, Air Commodore Nicholas Orjiudeh (retired), an electrical engineer, communication specialist and chief security officer at Geometric Power group, announced to journalists yesterday in Aba.

“With massive support from the Navy, Nigeria Police Force and sister agencies and similar support from youth groups in the area, as well as traditional rulers and presidents general of town unions, sustained power supply will soon be taken for granted in all nine LGAs covered by Aba Power.

“Frankly, it will be a new day in our dear state and serve as a wakeup call to all Nigerians who have long endured an acute electricity crisis, with all the concomitants”.

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