- Safiu Kehinde
The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, has claimed receiving calls from some Nigerians asking him to slow down the rate of power supply because their freezers were now working continuously.
Tegbe made the claim while commissioning a 3-megawatt solar hybrid power project at Yakubu Gowon University, formerly the University of Abuja, on Wednesday.
The Minister, in his address, claimed that some areas that previously went without electricity for months are now enjoying up to 18 hours of supply.
“Places that didn’t have light at all for three months are now having 18 hours light. Some areas called me to say, look, I should slow down, that everything in their freezer is freezing.
“That is what freezer is meant to do. Let it freeze the food that needs to be frozen”, Tegbe said.
He recalled promising during his Senate screening that Nigerians would begin to notice improvements in electricity supply within three to six months.
However, the minister, according to reports, acknowledged that ageing infrastructure remains a major challenge.
He noted that some power facilities are over four decades old.
“Some of the infrastructure we have in the electricity and power sector are more than 40 years old. We’re systematically replacing them, phasing them out and bringing new ones,” Tegbe said.
He decried vandalisation of some of the infrastructures as he disclosed that vandals had destroyed three major transmission towers in Birnin Kebbi by attacking their foundations and cutting parts of the structures for scrap.
“You will not believe how many towers get pulled down by vandals,” he said.
Tegbe said the government had formed a joint committee involving the EFCC, Police and NSCDC to protect critical electricity infrastructure and ensure vandalism is treated as a serious criminal offence.