By Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta

• Says govt owes $2m
SEPCO111, the Chinese engineering firm that constructed the Olorunsogo – Papalanto Power plant in Ogun State, has alleged that untrained members of staff of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) that man the power station are liable for damage to most of the plant’s turbines.
The Project Manager of SEPCO111, Mr Li Xianlai, said lack of expertise on the part of the PHCN’s staff was responsible for why only six of the eight turbines are working. Before the Minister of Power’s (Prof Barth Nnaji) last two weeks, only two turbines were working, four were just recovered and two are currently not functional.
He said lack of experience of the PHCN staff and inadequate gas supplies to the plant were some of the reasons the plant have not been working at optimal capacity.
"Six units of the eight turbines are running currently. One has a major problem caused by cleps from the national grid. The other has problem and the part has been ordered from China," he said.
Xianlai, who spoke with newsmen on Monday at the project site, said in line with the agreement, 20 PHCN staff were sent to China on training on how to run the turbines, but regretted that after they gained the requisite expertise on how to man the facility, they were deployed elsewhere.
He explained that those on ground running the turbines are not only inexperienced but are equally causing major damage to it even when the existing operational manual for the turbines were written in both English and Chinese for consultation when necessary.
"One has a major problem caused by lack of technical know-how on how to prevent the cleps from the national grid. When the power plant was being constructed, some staff of PHCN (20 in number) were sent to China for training on how to operate the plant but to our surprise, after the training and handing over, the staff trained in China were not sent here.
"They brought people that were not trained and who do not have the experience on how to run the plant."
He said despite the fact that the Phase 1 of the project was completed and handed over to the Federal Government through PHCN in 2009, his company – SEPCO111, is still maintaining the turbines at a great cost, spending "over $2million on spare parts alone in the last three years. "There is provisional running period of one year and for over three years after handing over to PHCN, we are the one still running it at our own cost. We have not received money from the government of Nigeria. We are still expecting the government to refund us," he said.
He said the reason for the current boost in generation from the plant was that SEPCO111 transferred gas meant for Phase 11 to phase 1, but added that the situation will not endure if gas supply by the appropriate agencies, is not improved upon.


http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/business/17833-chinese-firm-sepco-blame-phcn-for-plant-crisis.html

Some Nigerian saboteurs at work with what seems like a tinge of economic treason.