New Telegraph

FG blames terrorists for nationwide power outages

The Federal Government has blamed the frequent power outages in the country on the activities of the terrorists who vandalize power infrastructures.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, while fielding questions from newsmen after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) chaired by Vice President Yemi- Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa Wednesday.

The Minister expressed regrets that terrorists’ continued vandalism of power infrastructure was seriously affecting the capacity to deliver electricity to consumers.

He specifically spoke about cases in the North East, North West and North Central, where he said after power infrastructure were being consistently brought down by terrorists after repeated repairs

He said: “We have vandalism on our lines, vandalism on our stations, substations; we have those that affect us indirectly, and those directly affecting us but the infrastructure is not directly our own.

“Like vandalism around oil pipelines which affect gas and once you don’t get gas to power, you don’t get the megawatts; once there is no power coming from the generators, you know what that means.”

Commenting on the impact of insecurity on power infrastructure, the Minister said: “We have a lot of challenges and it’s not that we are sleeping over them. We are up and doing, we are tackling them as they come. Some already we have pulled them down, some we are pulling them down.

“This is a sector whereby you have so many players, responsibilities are vested on so many people. In fact, even some who are not given any responsibility interfere.

“So, we are working round the clock to ensure that we nip everything in the bud. For instance, this Maiduguri issue that you have particularly mentioned. Yes, through our thinking out of the box, we’re able to take back electricity to Maiduguri and people are enjoying it.

“Yes, we are facing a lot of security challenges in this country. We have challenges around our installations in Kaduna. As I’m talking to you now, we have been battling with one of our lines snapping towards Shiroro. We have two lines coming from there.

“One, we cannot even go there to inspect and see what is wrong because of the security challenges. We have issues around right of ways which I have talked to you here about which we are pulling down some. Some are still lingering, but we are facing them head on.

“So I’m confident if we remain on our toes without giving up, we will surmount all these problems.”

According to him, the government has now been compelled to design alternative but less efficient ways to supply electricity to areas affected particularly Maiduguri in Borno State.

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