Reps query Power Minister over nationwide outages

The House of Representatives on Tuesday, invited the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, to appear before it as it begins a probe into recent nationwide power outage arising from the collapsed national grid.

The Chairman, House Committee on Power, Magaji Da’u Aliyu, who addressed the Reps at the hearing, lamented the nonchalant attitude of the Ministry whenever there was a national emergency, and directed the Power Minister to take measures that would immediately address the challenge.

The Minister who was represented at the hearing by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Nebolisa Anoka, enumerated the challenges facing the sector which he said included low gas supply, low hydro levels, high cost of gas, as well as disequilibrium between power generation, transmission and distribution.

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He, however, assured that all measures were being put in place to fix the problem and restore the power situation in the country.

But the Committee Chairman said he was not satisfied with the explanation given by the Ministry as there was nothing to show in the presentation that the ministry was trying to resolve the problem as what they gave were mere speech and thesis.

The Committee, therefore, directed the Minister to return on Friday with more practical evidence of planned interventions.