Former Katsina State governorship candidate under the People’s Redemption Party (PRP), Imrana Jino, has called for compensation of electricity consumers, who have been left without power for over a week in the North.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, the politician lamented that millions of people had been adversely affected by the outage, especially small business owners, who depend on power to run their enterprises.
Jino, who is the founder, Jino Support Foundation, described the situation as unbearable for many, even as he added that such was a misnomer in the 21st century.
While he blamed the federal government as well as the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) for poor handling of the problem, he canvassed an urgent solution.
MEANWHILE, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu has blamed the current blackout in the North on sabotage, arising from the vandalisation of critical infrastructures.
In a statement yesterday by his Special Adviser, Strategic Communication and Media Relations, Bolaji Tunji, the minister, who was quoted to have made the assertion during his appearance before the Senate Committee on Power in Abuja, however, assured restoration of power in 72 hours.
Adelabu emphasised the need for increased security around key energy installations.
He revealed said his ministry was working with the National Security Adviser and other security agencies to restore order.
He said: “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 that this same line that transmits power from Shiroro to Mando and Kaduna was vandalised, 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 line, and that is why we sought the help of the NSA and other security agencies to get the line restored.”
The minister explained to the lawmakers that in most cases what happened to the grid was not a collapse, but a disturbance.
