FCE Okene Goes on Forced Vacation over 42-day Power Outage

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The management of the Federal College of Education (FCE), Okene, Kogi state, has said the school closed six weeks ago due to power outage over a faulty 2.5MVA power transformer.

The institution therefore appealed to the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) to intervene in the matter to allow it resume normal academic activities.

According to a statement from the school at the weekend, the damaged transformer has served for over 20 years and had become problematic for many months.

“While the second semester was supposed to start in October 2022, the power outage has forced students to remain at home as the management pressed on AEDC to replace the faulty transformer.

“We need the electricity supply to run the entire school: lighting, pump water to the hostels, for the offices, the libraries, among others. The cost of running a diesel generator all day to power the school is enormous at this time,” the management noted in the statement.

Also citing the concerns in the statement, some students of the college appealed for the quick intervention of AEDC to enable them return to class.

Some of the graduating students also called on the Minister of Education and President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on the relevant quarters to replace the transformer as they would not want to miss the scheduled mobilisation for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

According to the management, AEDC generates between N3 million and N5 million monthly from the FCE Okene and as such, should give priority to the educational institution in addressing the power constraint.

When contacted to comment on the power crisis at the college, President, Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, Kola Olubiyo, described the development as embarrassing to the electricity supply service provider and the entire electricity industry value chain.