Northern governors have expressed concern over the blackout in the region and want the Federal Government and related authorities to speed up the restoration of power.
The Northern Governors’ Forum said this on Monday after the union’s meeting with traditional 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 governors said in a communique 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 vandalism of a transmission line in the region has thrown the north into a blackout for days.
Businesses in several parts of the region are recounting losses, and owing to the outage, economic activities have been paralyzed in some places.
Disturbed by the development, President Bola Tinubu mandated the Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu, and other concerned parties to speed up the restoration process.
Tinubu also ordered 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 lamenting about the vandalism of the transmission lines, the president warned that Nigeria will no longer tolerate “deliberate sabotage and destruction of public utilities”.
Already, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said it was working to restore power to the affected 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.