Sabotage responsible for power outage – Okupe

Doyin Okupe, Special Adviser to the President on Public Affairs, has attributed the drop in the nation’s power supply to massive sabotage of the nation’s gas pipelines across the country.

He said this has led to the loss of 4,000 megawatts (mw) and the attendant drop in power supply currently felt by Nigerians. He told journalists in Yenagoa that the present administration had increased power generation capacity from 2,800 mw to 7,500 mw.

Okupe said Nigeria is generating about 3,000 mw, the lowest since 2011 due to the gas supply constraints to the power plants. He noted that vandals were bent on sabotaging the transformation of the power sector.

Okupe stated that President Goodluck Jonathan is concerned about the power shortage and had released funds to fix the vandalised pipelines and assured that the situation will improve in the next six weeks.

He said Jonathan’s administration had completed 10 Independent Power Projects it inherited, as well as provided additional 4,000 kilometres of gas pipelines to feed the power plants.

The special adviser said the Federal Government remained committed to improving the power supply and had ordered the military to treat pipeline vandalism as a national security challenge.

He assured that Nigerians would enjoy 16 to 18 hours of uninterrupted power supply when the repairs of the pipelines were completed and the newly inaugurated power plants resumed generation.

Okupe assured that the government will effectively address the challenges of oil theft and pipeline vandalism with the one billion dollars fund and the establishment of a technical committee on oil theft.