From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has said that ongoing power outage in Aba, Abia State, is a siege against national security.
It said that te State had been facing power outage due to disconnection of power supply to Aba Power, distributors of electricity to the commercial city from the national grid, by the Transmission Company of Nigeria.
Aba Power, which provides electricity to nine out of the 17 local government areas of Abia State, was cut off from the sole transmission network in the country on Friday due to the N896,210,059.58 debt owed it by consumers.
In a statement signed on Tuesday, CLO’s South East leader, Aloy Attah, said other electricity distribution companies in the country were owing various sums of money to generation companies, but none had been blocked from continuing to receive power for distribution to it’s areas of operation.
He warned that subjecting Aba Power to this kind of treatment was disastrous and constitutes a breach on national security as the Federal Government knows the implications of putting a section of the country in darkness even for a day.
“All the other 11 DisCos established since 2013, are owing far greater amounts, yet none has been subjected to this treatment because the Federal Government understands the far reaching implications of putting any part of the country in complete darkness even for a day.
“Far from allowing any part of Nigeria to be plunged into darkness, the government has been subsidising the DisCos with a fortune, despite being private entities. The Federal Government subsidised the distribution companies with N120billion in 2022 alone.
“It is scandalous that the Market Operator, an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, owned by the government, didn’t mind putting a state in darkness, including the Nigerian Army, the Navy, the Police, the Department Security Service, the Civil Defence and National Security Organisation in Abia State, which rely on constant electricity supply to discharge their duties to the Nigerian people in a state with grave security challenges,” CLO said.
The CLO pointed out a fundamental contradiction in the steps taken by the TCN in the payment of statutory fees to Federal Government agencies by Aba Power.
While in a letter with reference number: TCN-MO-003-APL-049-VOL2-202, dated April 30, 2023, the transmission company asked Aba Power, to clear it’s debt within one month, it wrote another letter with reference number: TCN-MO-003-EDTSP-C37—VOL7-2023, on the same day, to the Market Operator, directing it, to yank off Aba Power, from the transmission network within 24 hours.
The pro-democra
cy group observed that: “It is not fortuitous but rather a well calculated, deliberate action that the disconnection started not just on a Friday but also on a public holiday, which saw Nigerians out of their usual businesses till the following Monday.
“The TCN and the Market Operator did not allow Muslims to celebrate the annual Eid el Fitri feast, after one month of fasting, body mortification and intense spiritual exercise.”
The CSO expressed satisfaction that Aba Power has been making good efforts to discharge its financial obligations to both suppliers and government agencies as well as customers.
“Even though, in legal terms, it took over the ownership of the Aba Ring-fence in February, last year, it did not take over full management until last September, when it began to collect revenue from customers.
“For six months, it provided electricity without receiving a naira and still paid staff salaries during this period.
“We are also satisfied that it paid last month N500m to the Niger Delta Power Holding Company and N50m to the TCN.
“What is more, we are satisfied that it raised power supply in the Aba Power Ring-fence Area from 25 megawatts in September to 80MW last February, though there has been a decrease since March owing to the Niger Delta Power Holding Company’s decision not to provide credit anymore in response to the unwillingness of many individuals and organisations in the area not to pay as and when due for power supply”.
The CLO noted that unlike Aba Power’s performance record, many DisCos do not meet up to 15% of their obligations to government bodies and electricity suppliers.
The CLO ended by calling on President Buhari to direct the Ministry of Power to restore electricity to Abia people and also probe the Market Operator and the TCN for the abrupt electricity disconnection to Abia people.
“Aba is Nigeria’s manufacturing capital, and a most important commercial centre. So, the disruption of national security is at the heart of the TCN action.”
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