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| Minister of Information & Culture, Lai Mohammed |
The Federal Government has apologised to Nigerians for the poor power
situation witnessed in the country over the past few weeks.
In a statement in Abuja today,
the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, blamed the
power situation across the country on gas shortage and vandalism. He also said all efforts were being made to rectify the situation and ensure a gradual improvement in the power situation. The minister said at a time, the routine maintenance by the Nigeria
Gas Company had affected the supply of gas to power stations, forcing
down power supply from an all-time high of 5,074 MW to about 4,000MW.
He added that a combination of unsavoury incidents further crashed the power supply to about half that figure. Mohammed said, “There will be a decent improvement in the power
situation from this weekend, thanks to ongoing remedial efforts that
will double the current power supply to 4,000WM. Getting back to the
5,074MW all-time high that was reached earlier will take a few more
weeks.
''The vandalism of the Forcados export pipelines forced oil companies
to shut down, making it impossible for them to produce gas. Then,
workers at the Ikeja Discos, who were protesting the disengagement of
some of their colleagues after they failed the company’s competency
test, apparently colluded with the National Transmission Station in
Osogbo to shut down transmission. Finally, the unfortunate strike by the unions at the NNPC, over the
restructuring of the corporation, shut down the Itarogun Power Station,
the biggest in the country''. “Due to these factors, only 13 out of the 24 power stations in the
country are currently functioning. It is this same kind of unsavoury
situation that has affected fuel supply and subjected Nigerians to
untold hardship.”
The Minister strongly condemned the situation in which some
Nigerians, under the guise of the various unions in the oil and gas
sector or vandalism, continuously sabotage the country’s power
infrastructure. He added,''The bitter truth is that for as long as these groups of
Nigerians continue to sabotage the power infrastructure, Nigerians
cannot enjoy a decent level of power supply''.
“We therefore admonish all Nigerians who may be agitating for their
rights in whatever form to refrain from any action that will further
hurt the same people they claim to be protecting.”
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PLEASE BE POLITE