Vice Chancellor Abia State University, Uturu (ABSU), Prof. Eleazar Uche Ikonne, has assured that work on the 33 KVA electricity network which would connect the institution to the national grid, 34 years after its establishment, was on course.

The project was recently flagged off by the former Acting Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council, Chief Chuku Nwachuku, who disclosed that ABSU has been running on generating set which gulps about N11 million of its revenue, monthly.

Also, the immediate past VC, Prof Chibuzo Ogbuagu, who was on hand during the project flag off, explained that all previous efforts by his administration to connect the university to the national grid were unsuccessful, adding that the project, when realised, would lift a huge financial burden off the university.

Speaking to News Express in an interview in his office, Ikonne said the project was progressing and expressed optimism that it would soon be completed.

He said: “The contractor is working. He is drawing the high tension wire from Isuikwuato which is a distance. It is taking a lot of concrete poles for several kilometres.

“We think not too long from now, it will get to this place and it will save us a lot of fund we are spending on maintaining generators and buying diesel.

“We are anxious to have it, if the positive effect will not be nuetralised by the threatened increase in tariff. But however, I think it will be cheaper and more natural.”

Ikonne also said that the school was still battling with ecological problems, especially in its Uturu main campus.

“The issue of ecological problem is still here. The subsoil is still loose. When it rains, it washes the surface and digs deeper and it threatens some of our structures and the contractors who are building now have learnt to fortify the foundation of the DPC and we are engaging in landscaping and doing drainages that are built around the buildings to safeguard them,” he said.

•Photo shows ABSU VC, Prof. Eleazar Uche Ikonne.

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