The management of the Federal College of Education, Okene in Kogi state said the school closed six weeks ago due to power outage over a faulty 2.5MVA power transformer and yesterday appealed to the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) to intervene.
According to a statement issued by the school at the weekend, “The damaged transformer has served for over 20 years and had become problematic for many months.
“While the second semester was supposed to start in October 2022, the power outage has forced students to remain at home as the management pressed on AEDC to replace the faulty transformer.
“We need the electricity supply to run the entire school-lighting, pump water to the hostels, for the offices, the libraries, among others. The cost of running a diesel generator all day to power the school is enormous at this time.”
Students have appealed for the quick intervention of AEDC to enable them return to class. Some of the graduating students also called on the Minister of Education to prevail on the relevant quarters to replace the transformer as they would not want to miss the scheduled mobilisation for the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC).
According to the management, AEDC generates between N3 million and N5 million monthly from the FCE Okene and as such, should give priority to the institution in addressing the power constraint.
President, Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, Kola Olubiyo, described the development as embarrassing to the electricity supply service provider and the entire electricity industry value chain.
Olubiyo urged the AEDC management to expedite the procurement processes to replace the transformer to get the students back to school.
The management of AEDC said: “We are on top of the situation, but it will take a minimum of 12 weeks (from the day the transformer broke down), tidy up the procurement of a replacement transformer and installation benchmarks needed in ensuring that power supply is restored to the institution shortly.”
