From Damola Adeloye, Ibadan
After about 100 day in darkness, the controversy surrounding power supply to the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, was yesterday laid to rest, as the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu and the Managing Director of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, Engr Francis Agoha, agreed with the management of the hospital to restore power to the clinical section within the next 24 to 48 hours.
The agreement was reached after the minister intervened between IBEDC and the management of the teaching hospital.
While the minister was having a meeting with the Chief Medical Director, CMD, of the hospital, Professor Jesse Otegbayo, some students of the University of Ibadan led by Mr Aweda Bolaji staged a peaceful protest to complain of the hardship they have gone through after three months in total darkness.
Chief Adelabu, the CMD and IBEDC’s managing director addressed the aggrieved students, saying the power outage, which was a vendor-customer crisis, was an embarrassment to the hospital and the federal government.
However, the minister frowned at the situation where the whole burden was placed on the hospital when there are three categories that consume energy.
He also advised the CMD to report any case of energy theft by commercial entities to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for proper action.
“The managements of IBEDC and UCH have agreed to start an instalmental payment. The debt should be cleared between eight to 12 months.
“We have also agreed on the reconnection of the hospital to the national grid. The lights will be restored within 24 to 48 hours. We cannot afford darkness to linger.
“There is the issue of lumping together power consumers in UCH. We have the clinical services unit which is the hospital; College of Medicine which belongs to the University of Ibadan, the hostel that consume reasonable energy and the residences and commercial units. UCH is treated as a bulk energy consumer. So, the entire bill is on it. We have to unbundle that,” the minister said.
