Protect critical national assets, Power Minister urges Nigerians

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has urged Nigerians to always guard critical assets in their domain.

The minister said activities of vandals must be curtailed at all costs if the nation wants to develop.

Adelabu stated this on Tuesday at a media briefing organised by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in Abuja to update Nigerians on the efforts being put in place to restore power to the Northern part of the country which has experienced total darkness in the last one week. Tribune Online reports that there has been power outage in Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, and Jigawa States as a result of vandalisation of Shiroro-Kaduna lines that provide bulk power to the aforementioned states.

He said the Ministry is not relenting in its oars to see that power is restored to the North as soon as possible so that business picks up in the affected states.

He stated that there are long-term solutions to tackle and address incessant grid collapse through the establishment of regional and state grids that can be managed at that level. He also added that the Ministry is exploring alternative sources of energy through solar-embedded utility-scale power generation.

“Light will be restored to the North in three days. I want to call on Nigerians to always guard our national assets jealously. If we see something, we should say something. The vandals live among us. Vandalism is an act of terrorism. All the money we are using to repair power equipment can be used to build another substation.

“We are doing our best to see that power is restored to the North as soon as possible. It was a serious vandalisation but we are assuring Nigerians that power will be restored in a matter of days. What we need is the complete overhaul of obsolete power equipment which has been in existence for more than 50 years now.

“There are long-term solutions to address incessant grid collapse through the establishment of regional and state grids The Ministry is also exploring alternative sources of energy through solar-embedded utility-scale power generation and in fact we are on the verge of establishing the Western and Eastern power grid.

“And because vandalisation is an act of terrorism, there is a bill before the National Assembly to punish offenders to treat them as scapegoat and to serve as deterrent to others. There must be stiffer penalties or capital punishment for those who vandalise or destroy power facilities without the option of fine or just six months in prison, ” the minister stated.

Also, the senior special assistant, community engagement (North West) to the President, Abdullahi Tanko Yakassai, said 70% of lines carrying power to the North were affected by the vandalisation.

He however assured that TCN is working round the clock to repair the affected lines saying it was not a deliberate act to keep the North in darkness.