The Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Power, Dr Godknows Igali, on Friday re-affirmed the Federal Government’s commitment at curtailing the activities of vandals on electricity equipment in the power sector.
Igali, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja said efforts were being made by security agencies and stakeholders to curb vandalism on power equipment in the country.
The permanent secretary said that the communities housing the various electricity equipment were being sensitised to ensure security of equipment meant to generate, transmit and distribute electricity to Nigerians.
“We are sensitising them, the communities where these pipelines pass have complained to governments and to the security services.
“NNPC and the security agencies are working very hard, community service are being promoted and enlightened to do surveillance.
Igali said that many of the vandals had been arrested, while some had also been prosecuted for various offences.
He said that he had been anxious at the unpatriotic activities of few individuals who for financial gain destroy the collective heritage of the people.
“Vandalism is unfortunate, when our international partners speak with us, they tell us that there is no country in the world where its own citizens, for ulterior reasons, go and blow up their pipelines.’’
He said that it was most disturbing that some Nigerians would in the middle of the night blow up the equipment used in the supply of gas to the various power plants.
Igali said that the recent vandalism of gas pipeline in 10 different places affected the electricity generation in the nation’s power sector.
He however expressed joy that the power situation had improved based on the restoration of the vandalised equipment.
“This morning I am happy, for the past three weeks if you observed power situation went very bad, because we were about 4000 megawatts.
“ They hit us in about 10 different places that took the power generation level to 2000 megawatts.
“We have repaired, we have built up more surveillance security has been built up.
“We have gone again over 4, 0000 megawatts, so hopefully, we can maintain things,’’ Igali said.
He said that the privatisation of the power sector had led to the manifestation of resourcefulness and creativity in the sector.
