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[Update] Power failure Mar Senate investigative hearing on Power

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National assemblyUnexpected power failure at the National Assembly [NASS] suddenly brought the Senate plenary to an abrupt end while the investigative hearing on Power was ongoing.

The Senate Power Probe was disrupted on Wednesday by persistent power failure at the venue of the hearing which occurred at interval of eight times, even as the Chairman of Committee, Senator Abubakar Kyari promised to investigate motives behind power failure during the hearing.

‎The interactive session the Senate Ad- Hoc Committee members had with  stakeholders of the power sector started at about 11:30am and ended abruptly at 4:00 pm due   to 10-15mins power failure at intervals for eight different times from 2:00pm when the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Power, Godknows Igali was making a submission on behalf of the various electricity companies.

Other stakeholder that witnessed power failure during their presentation  were the Director- General of Bureau of Public Enterprises ( BPE), Benjamin Ezreal Dikki, the Chairman of National Electricity Regulatory Commission ( NERC), Sam Amadi and some of the Managing Directors of electricity Distribution Companies( DISCOs).

Although, there was no official statement on why there was persistence power failure during the hearing but the Chairman of Ad hoc Committee on Power, Abubakar Kyari promised that the committee would look into issue of power failure at the hearing.

Some of the operators who made presentations were forced to use their phone light and Video Camera light to make their ‎presentations.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee said that the actual investment in power sector since 1999 was more than N2.7trillion reported in the media adding that it is difficult for the committee to know the actual investment until all stakeholders concluded their presentations.

Kyari explained that the amount in the public domain came from only the ministry of power and the national integrated power project NIPP. 

According to him, the total figure of expenditure would emerge after all the agencies would have given their testimonies

In their presentation, investors in the sector in their various submissions lamented that they are running it at great loses on monthly basis due myriad of factors.

The Managing Director of Enugu Distribution Company, Mr Robert Dickerman who spoke on behalf of all the Distribution Companies (DENKOs)   , said the entire industry is being run by them at a deficit of N20bn per month.

This according to him, were due to over 50 % of electricity consumers not metered and about 30% , not even on the billing system of the service providers.

He also alleged that even the N100billion subsidy injection into the sector, promised by the federal government was not fulfilled.

A submission corroborated by the CEO Ibadan Electricity Generating Company, Adeoye Fagbembi on behalf of the  six GENCOs who said transmission losses between them and the electricity distributors , have been a big issue , even as the N100 billion subsidy earlier promised by government to bridge the loss gaps, is yet to be fulfilled.


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