Nigeria loses 1,800 megawatts of electricity in one month

Ministry of Power, on Thursday, said Nigeria lost about 1,800 megawatts of electricity in the last one month.

Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Ambassador Godknows Abigail, who stated this while meeting with the Senate Committee on Power, said the loss was largely due to vandalism.

The permanent secretary lamented that besides destroying crude oil pipelines, the vandals also blew up gas pipelines, even when they were clearly marked.

He said that the hoodlums went about destroying both oil and gas pipelines across the country.
“We have been able to explain to electricity consumers that the current power outage is as a result of high rate of pipeline vandalism.

“They vandalise both the crude pipelines and gas pipelines. When the crude pipelines are vandalised because people want to steal crude and condense some that affects the gas.The more sinister one, which is with a lot of pain, is when people deliberately blow up pipes written clearly as gas pipeline. They blow them up almost every day and that denies the power plants some gas.

“Unfortunately, our country depends on a lot of gas. We have hydro pipelines in Shiroro, Jebba and Kainji, which are the major ones. But in dry season, the hydro does not do well,” he said.
He stated that security operatives had caught about 200 pipeline vandals in the last two months, adding that the vandals were undergoing interrogation in the custody of the security agencies.

Senator Philip Aduda, who chairs the Senate committee, said it was necessary to hear from all stakeholders in the sector.

He, thereafter, issued a summon to the Director-General of the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPE), Mr Emeka Ezeh and other heads of agencies under the ministry to appear before the committee next week Tuesday.

Credit: Taiwo Adisa/Tribune

Comments