FG Decries Activities Of Vandals As Power Generation Drops To 2,000MW

PHCNMinister for Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, on Wednesday attributed the drop in power generation to vandalism of oil and gas pipelines. The power generation stood at 2,000 megawatts yesterday, he said.

Speaking at a world press conference in Abuja, the minister said the extensive nature of pipelines has made the facility cumbersome for policing.

He, however, said President Goodluck Jonathan “is working to ensure that resources are deployed for remote monitoring” of the oil and gas pipelines.

According to the Permanent Secretary in the Power Ministry, Godknows Igali, the power generation in the country reduced to 2,000 and something megawatts on Wednesday.

In a related development, the ministry signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) through the Special Assistant to the President on Youth Affairs, Jude Imhagwe with a popular musician and social crusader, Charles Oputa (Charlie Boy), on the propagation of secure pipeline campaign.

Other measures adopted to tackle the vandalism of power infrastructure, according to Igali, were collaboration with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the National Security Adviser.

He said: “Gas infrastructure vandalism and crude oil theft are the causes of significant economic loss to the Nigerian nation as well as the cause of insufficient power supply.

“Vandalism of oil and gas and power infrastructure always results in loss of crude oil and revenue, loss of gas and revenue impacting electricity tariff”.