3rd February, 2012
Activities in several ministries at the Lagos State Government Secretariat, Alausa, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, have been paralysed as Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, has thrown the secretariat into total darkness for five days.
Since Monday, there has been total blackout at the government secretariat and government activities have slowed down due to lack of electricity supply to carry out such functions.
Sources said PHCN cut off power supply to the secretariat over unpaid debt but the state government has denied this.
Windows of several ministries are now opened to allow fresh air into their offices while civil servants loiter around and chat among themselves as there was no power to carry out their functions.
P.M.NEWS observed that several ministries that have generators have been burning fuel and diesel to power their offices since Monday while those without generators remained paralysed.
Some bosses in some ministries bought generators to service them alone while other offices in the ministries remain in darkness.
Since Monday, the state government has spent millions of naira to power the various generating plants used by many ministries while power supply has not still been restored as at the time of filling this report.
Civil servants are complaining that their offices were too hot.
In some ministries where they managed to get generators to power gadgets in their offices, the Air Conditioners were switched off as the power emanating from the generators could not power them, leaving the offices stuffy and unconducive for work.
When contacted, the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr. Kadri Hamzat denied that the state government owes PHCN.
He said the fault was purely from the PHCN, saying that there was a fault in the distribution network of the PHCN supplying power to the secretariat. He said the fault ought to have been rectified by now.
—Kazeem Ugbodaga