The Kwara State government has expressed concern over the delay in the take-off of the Hydro Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC).

Rising from the last state executive council meeting for 2012, the state government said it was disheartening that HYPPADEC was yet to take off despite the enactment and signing of its Act into law.

Briefing journalists after the state executive council meeting in Ilorin yesterday, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Isiaka Gold, said that the council was disturbed by the plight of thousands of victims in the recent flood devastation and damage suffered by the communities in the state.

He said the state government had resolved to champion the cause of member states to ensure that governors in the zone impress it on the Federal Government on the need to facilitate the commission's take-off before the on going process of unbundling the electricity sector comes to fruition.

According to Gold, "processes leading to the take-off of the commission which had begun with series of meetings held in Kaduna under the auspices of Kwara State are to be stepped up by the Secretaries to the State Governments with Kwara State leading the initiative."

The SSG, who said that the council also considered the draft white paper on the report of the visitation panels to the three state-owned Colleges of Education in Ilorin, Oro and Lafiagi, added that the panel discovered falsification of admission enrolment, unauthorised borrowing, high handedness and power tussle within the rank and file of the institutions' authorities.

"In view of these, Council approved the setting up of committees to look into the debt profile of over N152m in the College of Education, Ilorin," he said.