Olayiwola Matthew
The Federal Government has fulfilled its promise to restore power to the northern part of the country that has been in darkness for more than 10 days.
Restoration was achieved on Wednesday, October 30 as bulk power supply was restored through the 330kV Ugwuaji-Apir transmission line 1 as of 4:56pm, following the completion of repairs on the vandalized section of the line and in line with the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu’s promise that power would be restored within three days. He gave the promise on Tuesday while speaking with the Senate Committee on Power.
The blackout which affected 17 States occurred when vandals damaged the Shiroro-Kaduna transmission line, which is the main power supply line to the north.
With the restoration of this line, the Apir-Lafia 330kV transmission line 2 is now operational, while bulk power transmission has been restored to Lafia, Makurdi, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi, and Gombe States.
The engineering team will also continue restoration work on the affected sections of the vandalized 330kV transmission line two. All necessary materials for the repairs are on hand, while work will begin as soon as the site is secured for the safety of personnel.
In the meantime, teams of linesmen will re-patrol the 330kV line 2 to ensure that no other sections are impacted as the repair works progress.
Addressing the Senate, the Minister said to prevent repeat of the recent incident, urgent measures must be taken to secure the nation’s assets from being vandalized by bandits and terrorists.
He had also informed the lawmakers that the ministry was working in collaboration with the National Security Adviser (NSA) and other security agencies to ensure that normalcy was restored.
“What we are witnessing, particularly with regard to the power situation in the north is unfortunate but worrisome. I also want to inform you that it is far from grid collapse but purely sabotage and vandalism. The transmission line that takes power to the north was destroyed by bandits and terrorists and what can we do about that? It has happened before. This same line that transmits power from Shiroro to Mando and Kaduna was vandalized and we fixed it without anybody knowing about it.
But this time around, it is extremely bad. The bandits also threatened our contractors, who were to fix the vandalized line and that is why we sought the help of the NSA and other security agencies to get the line restored”, he said.
“We have explored an alternative route, which is the Bauchi route though that one also was vandalised anyway but that is easier for us to deal with and that is why we can say that in two to three days, there will be electricity supply to the north”.