By GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE & FESTUS AHON

BENIN- CHAIRMAN, House of Representatives Committee on Power, Mr. Patrick Ikhariale has said that instability in the power sector has put Nigeria behind the comity of nations, as a result of which, the country was losing investors to neighbouring countries.

Members of his committee are currently on tour of Power Holdings Company of Nigeria, PHCN’s Power generation and distribution stations across the country with a view to assessing their state of operations ahead of the privatisation of the power sector by the Federal Government in the first quarter of 2012.

Fielding questions from newsmen shortly after touring the Ughelli Power Plc, Sapele Power Station and Benin Distribution Station, Mr. Ikhariale disclosed that the Federal Government would go ahead with its deregulation of the power sector which commenced in 2005.

He explained further that the purpose of the tour was on how to increase power generation before privatising the power stations.

On the fate of workers of the stations that would be affected by the privatization exercise, he said the Committee was concerned with the welfare of the workers, saying that the deregulation should be carried out in such a way that the buyer companies would not throw them into the labour market, assuring however, that “we would not allow any policy that will not be of benefit to our people”.

He explained that the Federal Government had concluded arrangements to ensure that bulk buyers of energy do not exploit Nigerians just as he hinted that although the unit cost energy would rise at the beginning, prices would come down when the market becomes competitive like what happened in the telecommunication industry.

Ikhariale also allayed the fears by PHCN workers over their job security in the hands of the would be buyers adding that the privatization plan was part of government policy to ensure that whoever took over the power stations would absorb the workforce.

He therefore called on the workers to cooperate with the Federal Government during the privatization exercise, pointing out that it was the responsibility of a ll Nigerians to build a better society.

Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of Ughelli Power Plc, Mr Ademola Adeniyi had told the committee members that the station with a capacity of 900 MW, currently contributes about 300MW to the national grid.

He listed shortage of technical manpower, security challenges occasioning delays in contracts execution and inadequate funding as some of the major challenges of the station, saying that about N2.5billiion was required to carry out major repairs of its units GT 17 and 20 and procure spare parts to raise its capacity to 550MW by the end of 2012.

Speaking in the same vein, the CEO of Sapele station, Mr Reginald Ifionu bemoaned non-budgetary provisions for the station in 2011, disclosing that N84,000 and N75,000 respectively were remitted to the station in the first and second quarters as working capital