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Nigeria’s Power Minister, Adebayo Adelabu, on Tuesday, assured that electricity will be restored to northern Nigeria within the next three days.
This comes after the Transmission Company of Nigeria reported an outage in the North-East, North-West, and parts of North-Central on October 22, caused by vandalism of the 330-kilovolt Ugwaji-Apir double circuit transmission lines and the Shiroro-Kaduna transmission line.
Speaking in Abuja while responding to questions from members of the Senate committee on power, led by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, APGA, Abia South, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who disclosed that power will get there in the next seventy- two hours, said that as a temporary measure, power would be supplied through the Ugwuaji-Makurdi transmission line, which could cover approximately 80% of affected states.
The Minister stated, “Power will be restored to the North in two to three days. We will use the Ugwuaji-Makurdi transmission line for temporary purposes.” This temporary solution is expected to cover approximately 80% of the affected states.
“We are working tirelessly to ensure that power is restored as soon as possible,” Adelabu emphasized.
“The government is committed to providing reliable electricity to all Nigerians, and we will not allow vandalism to disrupt our efforts.”
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Efforts are underway to access the damaged grid with the assistance of security agencies. “Once fully accessible, the damaged lines will be repaired, allowing for a complete restoration of power to the affected areas,” Adelabu noted.
He assured that repairs will be completed within 14 days, with full power restoration to the north.
“We are collaborating with security agencies to secure the grid and prevent future attacks,” Adelabu said. “Attacks on transmission towers are acts of terrorism, and we will deal with them accordingly.”
President Bola Tinubu has directed the military to provide security for workers repairing the power lines.
Nafisatu Ali, Executive Director of the Independent System Operator, attributed the outage to insurgency-related vandalism of the Shiroro-Kaduna transmission line.
“The Shiroro-Kaduna transmission line supplying power to the north was vandalized by insurgents,” Ali explained.
Adelabu emphasized that the government is working hard to restore power supply to the north through the eastern corridor, making at least 400 megawatts of power available by the weekend.
“So, I can assure you that before the end of this week, light will be restored to the north. We are exploring alternative routes, hoping that in a matter of days, light will be restored to the north,” Adelabu stated.
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, commended the minister’s efforts. “We appreciate the minister’s commitment to resolving the power outage. We will continue to support the ministry in its endeavors.”
The power outage has affected 15 states in the north, leaving them without grid power supply. However, with the government’s efforts, limited supply is expected to be restored by this weekend, with full repair works on the vandalized Shiroro-Mando line expected to be completed in about six weeks.
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