Abuja — The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has said it is working to restore power to most parts of the North that have been in darkness for over a week as a result of vandalism of the company's assets.
It also said that suggestions of an indefinite power outage in parts of the region, attributed to the Executive Director, Independent System Operator, Nafisatu Ali, while speaking at the recently held public hearing, was erroneous.
"TCN would like to state categorically that it is working diligently to restore bulk power supply as quickly as possible despite prevailing security challenges.
"Ali, in her address at the hearing, said that the Shiroro-Kaduna transmission line, which supplies power to Northern Nigeria, was vandalised by insurgents and in response, TCN has partnered with the National Security Adviser's office to secure the area, enabling her engineers to work safely on the restoration," the company said in a statement.
The statement signed by the TCN's General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, stated that Ali emphasised that deploying engineers without security support was not feasible, given the risks in the region.
"She therefore dispelled any suggestion that restoration would be indefinite, stressing that TCN's focus remains on ensuring an even supply of electricity nationwide and that security arrangements were underway," Mbah noted.
According to her, the current outage affecting Northern states for several days now is a result of vandalism of the Shiroro-Mando transmission line--a critical infrastructure that supplies electricity to the region.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Prevailing insecurity in the area, the TCN statement stressed, has delayed the immediate repair necessary to restore supply.
However, as a temporary measure, TCN said it had rerouted bulk power supply through the Ugwuaji-Apir 330kV line, which recently snapped.
TCN pointed out that it had been collaborating closely with the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) to work with its engineers to access the vandalism site to enable them to effect necessary repairs.
"This is vital to ensure the safety of lives during the repairs. We remain steadfast in our commitment to overcoming these challenges because we understand the place of electricity in the socio- economic lives of the people and the extreme inconveniences this situation is causing the government and all electricity customers in all the affected areas. We pledge not to relent in doing everything possible to rectify the problems and restore power supply to the affected areas," it added.
