BOMBING OF PIPELINES FINGERED IN POWER CUTS

 

Destructions done to oil pipelines in the Niger Delta by militant groups is being raised as a point now for the continued power outage.

BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU

The Bombing  of Oil Pipelines by militants fighting the Nigerian military high Command in  the creeks of the Niger Delta under the pretext of fighting to control their natural resources has being fingered as one of the reasons for the epileptic power supply across the country.

In an exclusive news interview just inside a crowd of protesters on the 23^rd of March,2016 as the crowd of protesters marched on into the Ikeja Electricity Distribution  Company Plc ,Ifako Ijaiye undertaking office in Lagos,Nigeria,an energy official in the firm who will not want to be quoted by the press said that the issue of Pipeline bombing which has taken its toll on operations nationwide could take some times before it is resolved.

His words:”generally ,there is no power supply at the moment  and I cannot now tell you of the level of power supply  at Kainji Dam as I do not work there”

The source while welcoming  the team of protesters to their  office  in Lagos lamented the power outage  but explained that the issue was temporal and that the agency was working night and day to correct the situation.

He noted that he lives within the  area at Ifako Ijaiye himself as such was even affected by the power supply which is at its lowest ebb in years .

He decried the level of usage of power by consumers which he fingered was the main problem in the system.

A member of Idiagbon Youth Association, Mr Lanre Arogundade pleaded with the officials to do something about the “working feeder “of the Idiagbon area as this was affecting the electricity supply.

Yet another power official while trying to calm down the frayed nerves over the unfortunate power crisis disclosed exclusively that there was a transformer now of about 2.5mva that was now being warmed up by a process he referred to as unsoak and will soon be installed shortly for power to be restored.

He advised the members of Idiagbon community not to insist on being transferred to another feeder because of a temporal problem which will eventually be fixed as they do not know what awaits them if they are migrated to a new feed.

A group under the platform of  Idiagbon Youths Association had sent a save our soul message to the News Office Desk of Paedia Express Mulltimedia on the night of 22^nd of March,2016 inistsing that it was ready to take its destiny in its own hands by shutting down Ifako Ijaiye in Lagos if the power crisis they have faced in the last two months did not get a respite.

It declared :”please be informed that due to lack of electricity supply in our community, insufficient pre paid meter and crazy tariffs ,we are prepared to launch our protests against the IKEDC policy”it stated in the  short release that was sent to Paedia Express Multimedia’s News Office Desk   as at eight P.M. on local time on the 22^nd of march,2016.

As at press time, what looked like peace was gradually returning to the Ifako Ijaiye community .