Abiodun vow to support mini bus owners convert to CNG

GOVERNOR Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, yesterday, said his administration would assist private mini-bus owners in the state to convert to using Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, at the expense of the state government, as part of palliatives to cushion TCThe effects of subsidy removal.

Abiodun, in an interview in Abeokuta, said the state government will, this week, unveil the first set of vehicles that will be converted from using diesel to using CNG.

He added that his administration has concluded plans to reactivate the state-owned ‘Bulk Purchase Programme’ under its Gateway Trading adding that his administration would also introduce an agric and food palliative which, according to him, would help “at supporting our farmers so that we can boost food production.”

Abiodun said: “In terms of food palliatives, we are now going to reactivate our Bulk Purchase Programme under the Gateway Trading and through different channels and warehouses in different parts of the state. We will be selling food items like grains and rice that we will be purchasing from the Central Bank of Nigeria at pre-deregulation prices.”

On the introduction of an Energy Transition Plan, the governor said: “The Energy Transition Plan is something that we conceived six to eight months ago, and we have begun work in earnest on that.

“The Energy Transition Plan is a plan that allows us to migrate from depending on PMS or diesel to power public transportation and begin to migrate to using Compressed Natural Gas, CNG.

“I am proud to say that sometime this week, we will be unveiling the first set of vehicles that will be converted from using diesel to using Compressed Natural Gas. That process started some months back.

“The first sets of vehicles that we will be unveiling are the state-owned mass transit buses and staff buses, and then we will be converting our minibuses that are owned by different individuals in the state.

“We plan to convert these buses at our expense because of the financial requirements that may make it difficult for owners of public mass transit buses to do that conversion. So the state will convert those buses at our expense, and that itself is part of our intervention plan.”