The Afiesere community in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State has issued a two-week ultimatum to AAKs and Bros Nig. Ltd, the contractor handling the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) substation project, demanding that they return to the site and complete the long-abandoned federal project or face decisive action from the community.
Residents, who staged a peaceful protest, expressed frustration over the contractor’s lack of commitment to the project’s completion. They lamented that years of persistent power outages in Afiesere were due to the contractor’s failure to deliver on the project.
Speaking during the protest, the President-General of Afiesere Community, Mr. Luke Umukoro, said the community could no longer tolerate the contractor’s negligence. He stated that the protest served as a 21-day warning for the company to resume work or for the federal government to revoke and re-award the contract to a more capable firm.
Umukoro questioned why such a vital substation project meant to provide electricity not only to Afiesere but also to nearby communities would be left abandoned. He noted the irony of an oil-producing community with a flow station, compressor station, gas station, manifold, and over 40 oil wells still living in darkness.
He added that the protest was intended to draw the attention of the government to the contractor’s failure, urging authorities to compel AAKs and Bros Nig. Ltd to return to the site since most of the required equipment had already been delivered but the project remained incomplete.
The Youth Chairman, Mr. Ejotubu Erubure, alongside Madam Josephine Ughellidoro and Mr. Joseph Ugbe, expressed frustration over the community’s prolonged power outage. “We’ve been suffering from a lack of electricity for years. It’s sad that an oil-producing community like ours is still in darkness. We’re appealing to the federal government, through the Ministry of Power and Energy, to help restore electricity and return our community to its former glory,” they said.
When contacted, the Assistant General Manager of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in Ughelli, Engr. Chukwuemeka Kenneth, who awarded the contract to AAKs and Bros Nig. Ltd, stated that the company had been fully paid and that TCN was not owing the contractor.
He expressed concern over the unnecessary delay in completing the project, noting that the only materials left to procure were cables needed to connect the equipment to the control room. “By now, this project should have been completed,” he said.
In response, the Project Manager of AAKs and Bros Nig. Ltd, Mr. Timothy Ogbebor, assured the community that power would be restored before December 25, 2025. He explained that once the cables are cleared from the port and delivered to the site, the remaining work would take less than a month to complete. “By God’s grace, before Christmas, the project will be done,” he promised.
