Adelabu: Why I Boarded, Personally Paid for Private Jet to Ibadan

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, yesterday said he boarded and personally paid for an aircraft operated by Flint Aero which  crash-landed at the Samuel Ladoke Akintola Airport, Ibadan, Oyo State last Friday, because of his desire to prioritise national assignment over personal interest.

A statement from the office of the minister said Adelabu spoke on Monday when he was accosted by journalists at the portals of the ministry on his resumption for duty.

The minister said 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.

In addition , he noted that he was to join the Lagos State Governor,  Babajide Sanwoolu to commission the Oyingbo overpass of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) route on Sunday.

 “ 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,” he noted.

The minister who expressed appreciation to everyone that showed concern over the incident, said he had put the matter 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,” he stressed.

Adelabu said since  his appointment,  he has 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.

He noted that he had been seeking to identify the issues and why Nigeria has 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.

 “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,” he said.