By Chioma Onuegbu Uyo

THE Managing Director, and Chief Executive Officer, Ibom Power Company, Engr Meyen Etukudo has disclosed that the collapse of a power conductor which was built in 1978  was responsible for  power outage experienced in the whole of Akwa Ibom state for almost two weeks.

 Etukudo who disclosed this while interacting with newsmen on Thursday in Uyo, explained that if nothing was done to change the  old turbines, the challenge of the power conductor snapping from time to time as a result of old age would persist.

He also explained that the transmission line from Aba in Abia State to Itu in Akwa Ibom  was meant to carry 80 megawatts of power in and outside of the state.

  His words, “The power conductor should be changed with a new one or with something lighter that can even carry 160 megawatts. This gospel has been preached all over the state, even at the national level but nothing has been done.

“And it is the job of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to change it, and not Akwa Ibom state. That line keeps snapping and once it cuts off, you have to trace the line from Aba to Itu.

” The transmission line or turbine is supposed to carry power 24/7, non-stop.  It has ran before for 180 days; it never stopped, and we are using gas, which is heating all the elements.

“Even other machines in other companies have time; they’ll stop and rest but the turbines in the power station are not meant to stop until you change them and bring in another turbine so that they continue running. Unfortunately, it is not so”

Etukudo even advocated for the upgrading of Ibom power station, the Akwa Ibom state-owned power company, to 250 or 300 megawatts to contain the emerging economic trend in the state.

Responding to a question on the non-optimal performance of the power sector in Nigeria, Etukudo explained that what Nigeria requires was the appointment of experts and professionals to manage and make the sector work.

“When we realize the importance of putting the right peg in the right hole, things will begin to get better in Nigeria. For instance, when you give a historian or any person from an unrelated background to manage the power sector, what do you expect?” , He asserted