By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South
The tribulation of the Ndokwa ethnic nationality in the Delta North senatorial district (Anioma), Delta State, is a symbolic Niger Delta tale of the government/oil conglomerates taking advantage of an oil community and giving little or nothing in return.
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For the past 20 years, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Anambra, Enugu, and seven other states have been receiving electricity from the federal government’s Independent Power Plant (IPP) in the Okpai community in the Ndokwa East Local Government Area.
However, the residents of the land where the IPP is located have not had power supply from the power plant for even a single day. Until the government supplied electricity to the communities, they had intended to stall the IPP project’s 2005 inauguration.
Olusegun Obasanjo, the president at the time, was informed of the people’s concerns and gave them his word that the government would provide electricity to the local communities. But he left office in 2007 without the step-down.
Promise after promise has been made to the villagers for the past 20 years, asking them to exercise patience.
To improve the area’s power supply, the Transmission Company of Nigeria awarded a contract in 2021 for the construction of a 132 kV double-circuit transmission line, valued at about N4.2 billion. Inexplicable delays have beset the contract execution for four years.
Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, a former governor of the state who hails from the Delta North senatorial district, did not directly address the Ndokwa electricity scandal during his eight-year term, probably because it is a federal project.
Okowa’s successor, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, did not buy into Senator Nwoko’s proposal to implement the electricity step-down using a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Under this arrangement, investors would receive their money in installments from the state government through an irreversible standing payment order or consumer billing.
Youths rebuff Onyeme, deputy governor, and Ajede, Ukwuani LG chair
The residents, especially the youths, resolved early in the year that they would no longer be on the riverbank and wash their hands with spittle.
So, notwithstanding the admonition of the Deputy Governor of Delta State, Monday Onyeme, and other top politicians from the Ndokwa ethnic nationality, they trooped out last Monday, June 16, on a peaceful protest tagged “Light up Ndokwa Nation.”
The protesters who woke up as early as 4 am had, by 6 am, taken over the streets of the Kwale community, headquarters of the Ndokwa West Local Government Area, and laid siege to both sides of the Asaba-Kwale-Ughelli road for several hours.
They demanded that the federal government stepped down the IPP, Okpai, to provide electricity to the Ndokwa communities.
The army and police fired tear gas at the protesting youths at about 9.00 am to disperse them, but they regrouped and continued with the protest.
On why the police shot tear gas at the protesters, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the Delta State Police Command, SP Bright Edafe, said it was not wrong to shoot tear gas in a protest that went violent.
”Any protest that people will go and block the highway and burn tires is no longer peaceful. They were burning tires and stoning vehicles,” he said.
The deputy governor, Onyeme, and other leaders had attempted to stave off the protest, assuring that the governor, Oborevwori, had issued orders for the Ndokwa communities to be connected to the national grid within two weeks. But the youths rebuffed his appeal.
Possible Ajede, the chairman of the Ukuwani local government area in Ndokwa land, revealed that the contractor in charge had received 80 percent of the materials required to reconnect the area to the national grid.
Our stand—Ndokwa youth leader
An Ndokwa youth leader countered the leaders, ”We did not request a connection to the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC); the federal government should step down power from the Okpai Power Plant to the Ndokwa communities. They have deceived us for many years and are delaying the project to punish us.”
”Our leaders ignored our repeated calls for action all these years and came at the eleventh hour when we had made up our minds to protest injustice; we refused.
”Our position is that the federal government should step down electricity to the Ndokwa communities or shut down the Okpai Power Plant. You cannot supply electricity to other states from a power plant in Ndokwa land while the Ndokwa people do not have electricity.
”Our protest is against bad governance, decades of abandonment, muteness, and political nepotism that have met our yells,” he said.
Oborevwori mandates Onyeme to ensure Ndokwa gets light
—Aniagwu, commissioner
Commissioner for Works (Rural Roads) and Public Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, who spoke to reporters, asserted, “The Okpai power project is not a state government project; we can only begin to make an effort to see how we can begin to benefit, and that is ongoing.”
“I am also aware that the deputy governor of the state, Sir Monday Onyeme, who is from the Ndokwa nation, has been mandated by the governor to begin to look into how we can ensure that our brothers and sisters over there get connected.
“They have had several meetings with them, and an effort is being made to deal with the challenges between the then Power Holding Company before it moved to the Benin Electricity Distribution Company as to how to settle certain outstanding liabilities so that they can begin a process of getting them reconnected to the grid.
“Because there was an absence of power as power distribution channels along that corridor were being energized, some criminals tampered with the power infrastructure in that corridor. It is now a question of providing certain power or energy infrastructure for them to be effectively connected.”
Ojei, activist yells
Victor Ojei, an activist and founder of the Young Nigerian Rights Organization, is aghast at how the government has treated the Ndokwa people over the years.
“For decades, the Delta State government has shamelessly exploited the Ndokwa nation—an oil and gas-producing region that significantly boosts the state’s internally generated revenue and Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations, yet has been completely abandoned. No state university. No federal presence. No real development. Just crumbs and insults,” he said.
“When the people rose in peaceful protest through the Light Up Ndokwa Movement, demanding what is rightfully theirs—electricity—the same government that begged for their votes in 2022 quickly turned on them, calling them ‘criminals and drug addicts.’ What changed?
Delay in the step-down perplexes Senator Nwoko
To find out why the step-down project to the Ndokwa communities was being delayed, Senator Ned Nwoko, who represents the Delta North senatorial district, brought up the Okpai IPP issue in the Senate in March 2024
Following his motion, the Senate directed its power committee to look into the issue and take appropriate action to address the delay in delivering 100 megawatts of electricity to communities in the Delta North senatorial district.
To benefit the communities in the Delta North, the Red Chamber urged the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the Federal Ministry of Power to supply electricity from the Okpai IPP.
Nwoko, in his lead debate, said, “Nigeria has 23 power-generating plants, also known as Independent Power Plants, interconnected with the national grid. Together, these plants can produce 11,165.4 megawatts of electricity. The Okpai Independent Power Plant in Delta State is one of these establishments.”
“This power plant operates a functional 930-megawatt gas-fired power generation facility that contributes to Nigeria’s power supply grid. At the time of the plant’s commissioning in 2005, it generated only 480 megawatts of electricity.
“Nevertheless, it played a crucial role in the national power distribution system in Nigeria by supplying electricity to nine distant states in the country, including Anambra, Enugu, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, among others.
“Also aware that Okpai Independent Power Plant has been upgraded to provide a functional 930 megawatts of electricity, with an understanding to increase the power supply to host communities from 50 to 100 megawatts. This extension will include host community beneficiaries from the entire Delta North Senatorial District of Delta State.
“To enhance its electricity supply, the Transmission Company of Nigeria awarded a contract worth approximately N4.2 billion in 2021 for the construction of a 132 KV double circuit transmission line.
“However, to date, there have been unexplained delays in executing the contract project,” Senator Nwoko added.
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