The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, has explained motive of Friday trip that almost caused his life in air mishap, saying that it was a national assignment which is great importance to the country.
OPTIMUM TIMES recalled that on Friday, the Minister, other nine passengers and three crew members were on board a private jet operated by Flint Aero from Abuja to Ibadan. It however, crash-landed off the runway in Samuel Ladoke Akintola Airport, Ibadan, Oyo State at about 8.30 pm. Those on board were evacuated unhurt.
Contrary to speculations on the motive of the trip and hiring of the private jet, Chief Adelabu in his first official reaction since the incident said it was as “a result of his desire to prioritise national assignment over personal interest”.
He clarified that he left Abuja on Friday because he had an appointment to visit the soon to be commissioned 2 X 60MVA, 132/33KVA transmission Station in Ogbomoso, Oyo State on Saturday morning and to also join the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwoolu to commission the Oyingbo overpass of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) route on Sunday.
He said: “You will recall that we had a ministerial retreat with Mr President till late Friday evening. However, due to the prior appointment in Ogbomoso, Oyo State I had to personally pay for a private jet to convey us to Ibadan from the Villa where the retreat was held in order to meet the Saturday and Sunday’s appointments”.
The Minister who expressed appreciation to every one that showed concern over the incident said he has put the incident behind him.
“We thank the Almighty God that the incident was not more than that, however, we have a mandate from the President to boost power supply in the country, we should not let anything deter us from that objective. You can all see that I am in the office to resume for work. That is what matters and in the next few weeks, Nigerians will see further improvements in power supply”, Adelabu further said.
The Minister explained since his appointment, he had seized the opportunity to engage the various stakeholders such as the generating and distribution companies and other related organisations in the power sector value chain ladder to identify the issues and why we have not had any improvement in the sector in spite of government’s huge investment in the sector.
“You all know that I am not the first Minister to be appointed in this Ministry, we have had a lot of prominent Nigerians holding forth here. the question to then ask is; why have we not had any significant improvement in the sector?
“We do not want to go the same way, we want to know what the challenges are and these have been identified. We are interested in delivery – focussed strategy to boost power supply”, he said.
Adelabu said a retreat for all the various stakeholders will hold before the end of the year.
The Minister added that: “Some of these stakeholders are the major operators in the industry and it is important that we are all on the same page on the steps that must be taken to boost power supply.”
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