The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) Managing Director, Mr. Usman Gur Mohammed, has revealed that the company has stopped paying rent on its land at the National Control Center (NCC), Oshogbo in Osun State.
He recalled that the government had paid rent on it for 50 years but at the point of planning to install a SCADA in the center, it realised that it was inappropriate to install it in a rented property.
He spoke at the Market Operator’s Participants Key Stakeholders 2019 3rd Quarter Interactive Forum in Abuja.
While deciding to relocate the center, the TCN was told that the property on which it has paid rent in error for 50 years belonged to the federal government.
This has culminated in the stoppage of further payments of rent on the property.
He did not however disclose whether the government has plans to recover the fund from the private individuals that fraudulently collected its rent for five decades.
Mohammed said “For your information, for several years we have been operating our National Control Centre, Osogbo, the land we use is a rented land. We had been paying rent on that land for over 50 years. I am happy to announce that that land belongs to us and we are not paying rent again.”
He said that all the company’s contracts must now be completed within 18 to 24 months, stressing that “we don’t need politics. We need infrastructure.”
He debunked the claim that the TCN was not considering local contractors in its award of contracts.
The TCN boss noted that the management would not respect local content to reencounter what led to the “problem that caused us to have 800 containers stranded in the ports; we cannot repeat it.”
Mohammed threatened that the company would charge any contractor that fails to complete his project in record time liquidated damage.
Following the failure of Nigeria to install a SCADA after three attempts, the company has now accepted a zero knowledge of it and decided to sign a bond with 15 staff to undergo training on SCADA abroad no matter the cost. The staff, in line with the bond, must serve the company for five years, he said.
The Market Operator of the TCN, Engr. Edmund Ejie, disclosed that the Federal Government has approved N600billion that would be injected into the nation’s electricity market.
He said that the fund is ripe for disbursement any moment from now. (The Nation)
