Northern Lead Representatives have communicated worry over the outage in the region and want the Federal Government and related authorities to hasten the restoration of power.
The Northern Governors’ Forum (NGF) said this on Monday after a meeting with customary rulers and other stakeholders in Kaduna.
“Forum resolves to call on the Federal Government and relevant Agencies to urgently address the current electricity power blackout affecting most of the Northern States due to vandalization of electricity transmission infrastructure,” the Lead Representatives said in a dispatch issued after the meeting.
“This matter not only underscores the vulnerability of critical infrastructure, but also the need to build additional transmission lines and diversify our energy supply to better connect our region and improve our energy resilience.”
The defacing of a transmission line in the region has tossed the north into a blackout for days.
Businesses in a few parts of the region are recounting losses, and attributed to the blackout, economic activities have been crippled in certain places.
Upset by the turn of events, President Bola Tinubu ordered the Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu, and other concerned parties to accelerate the restoration process.
Tinubu additionally mandated the National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu “to work with the Army and Air Force to deploy adequate security personnel, including aerial cover, to protect the engineers who are fixing the damaged transmission line”.
While regretting the vandalism of the transmission lines, the president cautioned that Nigeria will never again tolerate “deliberate sabotage and destruction of public utilities”.
As of now, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said it was working to restore power to the impacted region.
“TCN would like to state categorically that it is working diligently to restore bulk power supply as quickly as possible despite prevailing security challenges,” the agency’s General Manager of Public Affairs Ndidi Mbah said.
