Ossiomo Power Plant has restored power to its customers after barely two weeks of blackout.
The Guardian, however, learnt that the restoration covers not all customers but those on the Sapele Road axis of Benin City, and most especially customers on the power plant’s 33kVA.
Ossiomo, an independent power generation and distribution firm, was floated in 2020 under the previous government in the state to break the monopoly of Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC). It generates 95MW of electricity, which it supplies to government buildings, Edo State Government House, Edo NUJ secretariat, private organisations, streetlights, among others.
The power plant, however, went off on September 1, 2025, due to an ownership tussle between the Nigerian partners — Ossiomo — and its Chinese partners — Jiangsu Communication Clean Energy Technology (CCETC).
CCETC said, “Instruction to shutdown was because we lost lots of money and did not get any return on investment,” adding that “all the $20m investment was done by us, including the distribution lines.”
The Nigerian partners — Ossiomo, however, refuted their claims, alleging that the Chinese partners, having seen how lucrative the business is, “went to some quarters and raised some issues, probably thinking they can manoeuvre us with the help of some big persons, so that they can use their machines to generate power and sideline us, but this is not possible.”
Apologising to customers during an interactive session with journalists and customers over the weekend, representatives of the management of Ossiomo, Engr. Festus Evbuomwan, while emphasising that all their Chinese partners’ claims were false, said the management was not aware of the $20m investment the Chinese partner claimed, adding: “When they generate power, we sell and pay them, so I don’t know at what point we owe them.”
He added: “They have also been saying that they have not been receiving anything, but I want to tell you unequivocally that first, the partners run a joint account where their investment is going into. More so, the Chinese partners have received over ₦2bn so far for the power they generate with their machines. When they generate the power, we sell and pay them.”
According to him, trouble started when several attempts to sideline Ossiomo by the Chinese partners failed.
He added that they (Chinese partners) then came up with a request for payment of ₦185m to two Chinese staff not known to the management. He said Ossiomo management resisted payment to these ghost staff, and this led to the Chinese partners shutting down the plant totally on September 1, 2025.
Evbuomwan, who said Ossiomo has procured its own turbines and has started power generation and distribution, explained further, saying, “We have purchased turbines, and one has started working. They are working on the second one, so by the time our five turbines start working, we will be at full capacity. Even with that, those connected to the government line may not be reached immediately.
This is because the government bought the poles and contracted the wiring, and we cannot force the government to do our bidding. Also, we are making efforts to site a 33kVA transformer along Airport Road and Lagos Road as soon as possible, so that our customers there can get power.”
Evbuomwan, while urging the “government to encourage the Nigerian citizens to invest and not to work against local investors,” added: “I must again, at this juncture, make it clear that the Edo State government does not have a stake in the company.”
He used the opportunity to appeal to the “government to let us supply power to customers through their lines. I want to emphasise that Ossiomo is not completely shut down.”
