By Tope Musowo
Lagos
Lagos state government yesterday said it was currently putting together a bill to be sent to the House of Assembly for passage into law to criminalise power theft in the state.
The Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Mr. Olawale Oluwo, disclosed this during the annual ministerial briefing, warning that should anyone vandalise power assets, by-pass meter under the Lagos state Embedded Power Project, he or she might likely end up in jail.
“If anyone vandalises power assets, by-pass meter under the Lagos state embedded power project, such person may likely go to jail,” he said.
Oluwo said the said draft bill would be to be presented to the House would be ready by next month as lawyers were already working on it.
“We will have a draft bill by next month; the lawyers are already working on it, and the draft will be presented to the State House of Assembly. And when the House passes the bill and the governor signs it into law, we will begin enforcement immediately,” he said.
Speaking further, the commissioner said the state government was determined to meet its electricity challenges by stimulating investment in the state through its embedded power scheme.
He said with the collaboration, the state was using the strength of its balance sheet to guarantee the deployment of off-grid modular plants of between 20MW to 100MW strategically spread within clusters close to reliable sustainable sources of electricity and power evacuation substation for the exclusive benefit of Lagos residents.
Oluwo added that the “Light Up Lagos” scheme had been streamlined into three broad areas, namely; street lighting electrification, community electrification and embedded power electrification.”
He stressed that the provision of street lights from Oshodi to Apapa was ongoing, while provision of street lights from Mile 2 to Apapa would soon start, saying the outsourcing of street lights in the state had been spread among 54 companies.