- Safiu Kehinde
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has reaffirmed that the Federal Government is uninvolved in the crisis between the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, and the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC).
Adelabu noted that the crisis was a customer-vendor relationship while his intervention is aimed at resolving the crisis and ensuring power is restored to the university.
The Minister stated this during another meeting with the management of the UCH and IBEDC on Monday.
“Let me tell you that this is not the first time this crisis will be coming up. It was not a crisis that was initiated by the federal government or which the federal government was speaking to.
“It was a customer-vendor relationship issue between UCH and IBEDC. We are only intervening as the parents of this institution, and we are not happy that it has been in darkness for so long”. He said.
Adelabu, represented by his Special Adviser, Strategic Communications and Media Relations, Bolaji Tunji, had again intervened in the power crisis that has thrown many parts of the UCH into darkness for over 100 days.
The Minister directed IBEDC to restore power to the College of Medicine and the halls of residence within the teaching hospital premises that had continued to be in darkness after the earlier meeting.
According to a statement made available to NPO Reports, Adelabu’s directives came in view of the inability of the UCH management and the College of medicine to resolve the payment modalities and separation of assets due to the interconnectivity of the two entities.
Following the meeting, the IBEDC restored power to the Clinical services section of UCH.
However, the electricity distribution company said it was awaiting further guidance from UCH management on the next steps in restoring power to additional sections of the hospital.
As part of Monday’s resolution, the clinical area will now be solely connected to a new transformer before the end of the week while another transformer would be installed to serve the College of Medicine.