By KABS KANU
The whole of Sierra Leone has been plunged into pitch darkness because the Karpowership providing electricity to the capital, Freetown, has shut off services because the Maada Bio government cannot pay the U.S $48 million owed the company. Also, the government does not have the resources to service the Bumbuna Hydroelectricity Dam .
As the nation languishes in darkness , with all its attendant problems, what has emerged is that the SLPP Government acted deceitfully and did not tell the people the truth.
On April 9th, 2024, the Turkish Karpowership informed the Chief Minister, Moinina David Sengeh of their intention to suspend their service if they were not paid by April 15, 2024.* Karpowership requested that the government pay the US$27,102,555 which corresponds to the overdue amount for their invoices from 2022 to 2023.*But the government did not only spurn the request but they gave the Sierra Leonean people the wrong picture of the problem.
Instead of telling the nation the truth that it did not have money to pay the power ship, this was the deceitful statement that came from the Government :
The deceitful excuses above were from from the truth because this was what was actually causing the powercuts. The government was unable to pay the ship the U.S $48 million it owed the power ship. A government that does not tell its people the truth but depends on deceiving them is not fit for purpose. And why not ? With the SLPP, everything is by Paopa ( Force ). Nothing is ever done the right way.
READ THE TRUTH BELOW:
READ AN ARTICLE ON THE POWER BLACKOUT IN SIERRA LEONE:
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*…SLPP REVERTS FREETOWN to the DARKEST CITY IN AFRICA*
*BY MAESTRO SAMURA*
In 2007 when former president Dr Ernest Bai Koroma took over as President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Freetown was referred to as the “darkest capital city in Africa.”
Only about five to seven megawatts of electricity was generated, and that was irregular. The construction of the Bunbuna Hydro Project was still not completed. Energy was number one because Freetown was in darkness; there was no form of energy. EBK as he was fondly called gave a target of 100 days to provide a certain amount of regular electricity supply to Freetown.
It was not easy in those days, but they were able to bring in at least 15 megawatt thermal generation capacity within 100 days for Freetown as promised. That was not enough for Freetown and it was still not enough. But since that project came on stream, they have had a sustained and regular supply of electricity in Freetown, thus, the unfortunate refferance as the darkest city in Africa faded away.
Fast forward to 2018 when the unpopular and non-developmentally oriented Sierra Leone Poverty Party (SLPP) under the leadership of President Bio took power, electricity, especially in Freetown was tagged by many as epileptic to the point that business people resorted to the once departed “Kabba Tiger” seeking for solace.
After the June 24, 2023 general elections in which many including the International Community referred to as fraud and full of irregularities, Maada Bio decided to stole the presidency, leaving the country in a state of dismay, fighting for its survival under oxygen.
It is against this backdrop, things started going from bad to worse. Even electricity that remains to be the only hope for the suffering masses deteriorated to a point of moving at a high speed to reclaim our place under the same late Ahmed Tejan Kabba’s SLPP regime as the ‘darkest city in Africa’.
According to an official statement from the country’s main source of energy provider, the Karpowership, electricity supply will reduce from 65MW to only 5MW. This is as a result of the current debt of over $46 million USD owed by the SLPP government.
Seemingly, residents of Freetown will for a considerable period of time continue to grapple with frequent electricity outage that has now become the order of the day, creating a lot of inconveniences and adversely affecting businesses.
It is very uncertain as to whether the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) will very soon overcome the challenges it has been claiming, as negatively impinging the Western Area network.
EDSA’s latest press release dated 16th April, 2024, will only be described as heightening the lack of hope that the electricity situation will soon improve. In it, EDSA stated that it wishes to inform the general public that due to a number of concurrent unfortunate challenges along the energy supply chain, it is currently challenged in providing adequate electricity to the Freetown network.
However, juxtaposed with the content of the aforementioned EDSA press release, I learnt from a reliable source that the Karpowership, a subsidiary of the Karadeniz Energy Group that entered into agreements in 2018 and 2020 with the SLPP led government to supply electricity to Sierra Leone’s State power utility, in the recent past, decided to reduce its power supply to only 5MW from 65MW for the security forces and hospitals. Thus, the SLPP government under Maada Bio has no choice but to bring us back to the once lost darkest city in Africa.
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*©️The APC Strategic Communications Unit*
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