Minister of Power Aliyu Blames Poor Electricity Supply on Terrorism

Abubakar Aliyu, the minister of power, claimed on Wednesday that terrorists who target difficult-to-reach locations, particularly in the northeast, are thwarting efforts to assure a consistent power supply statewide.

According to the report, the damages have made it difficult for the Transmission Company of Nigeria to provide power to the impacted areas.

When addressing State House Correspondents on the results of the Federal Executive Council meeting held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja under the chairmanship of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Aliyu revealed this information.

A federal government assessment from September 2021 revealed that TCN’s vandalised transmission equipment in Maiduguri, Borno State, cost N1.7 billion.

According to Aliyu, the transmission infrastructure is being vandalised after every effort to install new ones; forcing the government to resort to alternative but less efficient ways to supply electricity to affected areas in Maiduguri.

He added that TCN officials could not access some vandalised power infrastructure in Shiroro, Niger State; as they are situated within terrorist strongholds.

Aliyu, however, noted that his ministry is working closely with security agencies to access such areas and begin new power projects.

Giving an on-the-ground detail of the vandalism, he said; “We have a lot of challenges and it’s not that we are sleeping over them. We have vandalism on our lines, vandalism on our stations, and substations. Also, we have those ones that affect us indirectly, and directly. Like vandalism around oil pipelines which affects 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.

“For instance, this Maiduguri issue, through our thinking out of the box; we’re able to take back electricity to Maiduguri and people are enjoying it. We have challenges around our installations in Kaduna. As I’m talking to you now, we have been battling with one of our line snaps toward 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 the 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.”