Suspected vandals, still wanted by the police, are believed to have scuttled plans by Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade, to boost the supply of electricity to parts of Yakurr Local Government Area, CRS.
Government sources in Calabar, the state capital, revealed to www.calitown.com that the governor had despatched John Inyang, Commissioner for Lands and an indigene of the LGA, with matching orders that power supply be generated and distributed from the power plants installed in Ugep, by the state government. Inyang is said to have, on the strength of the governor’s directive, travelled to the area and pulled all stops to get the plants working but discovered along the line that the diesel initially left in the diesel holding tank has been expertly siphoned.
We further gathered that while the diesel issue was expressly addressed, a greater snag was discovered as sizeable portions of armoured cables, meant to convey electricity, were cut and removed by suspected vandals. There was however a bizarre twist to the theft when it was discovered that there was no visible breach of the fence at the plant site, upon thorough plant site inspection. An irked and alarmed Inyang we gather, immediately called in the police, whose station is less than a minute’s walk from the site. Preliminary investigations carried out by the police, we were told, show that not even the locks at the gate were tampered with, causing the police to take in some local council staff with access to the site keys.
“The plants would have guaranteed uninterrupted power supply to the people during the yuletide, as the governor wanted. Now, this didn’t happen and it is a shame that a theft like this can take place and in a community like Ugep and no one saw anything. When government makes a deliberate effort to provide some kind of stop gap solution to a problem as teething as power supply, unfortunate incidents like this vandalization, make a mess of all positive intentions”, a highly placed source submitted.
Unknown too was the fact that the keys to the working power plants, were to be formally handed over to the local monarch, Obol Ofem Ubana Eteng, Obol Lopon of Ugep and Paramount Ruler of the LGA; that too did not hold.
Contacted by telephone, the commissioner confirmed the information and added that the police will get to the root of the matter, while warning that those behind this crime will be apprehended by the law enforcement agencies no matter how long it takes and be brought to book. He also appealed that the local monarch will take the lead in protecting the facility.
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