The national electricity grid collapsed again on Friday evening, making it the third time the grid had collapsed within the space of one month.

Some power distribution companies confirmed the development in separate messages on Friday evening.

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company stated that the collapse had resulted in power outage in its area of operation, which covered about five states.

In a tweet via its official Twitter handle, the AEDC said, “Please be informed that there has just been a national grid collapse causing an outage in our franchise areas.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused and appeal that you bear with us while we await restoration from the TCN (Transmission Company of Nigeria). We regret all inconvenience caused.”

Also, Eko Electricity Distribution Company said the grid collapse affected its entire network.

It added, “TCN team is working to resolve it as soon as possible.

Abeokuta – The Peoples Democratic Party leader in Ogun State, Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu has described as a curse, lack of electricity in the country.

Adebutu stated this on Tuesday at the 3rd symposium organized Ladi Adebutu Good Governance at Ota, Ogun state.

The former House of Representatives member said “The lack of electricity brings on us a curse. It brings on us the curse of expensive generators, this curse takes money out of every pocket in Nigeria. Even the perpetrators of this folly pay for it, we all pay for expensive diesel.”

Adebutu called on the state government to parallel generation, transmission facilities, distribution facilities in order to create a conducive environment for industries, which according to him, are relocating from Ogun industrial hub due to lack of power supply and road infrastructure.

He said “The states are allowed and truly enabled to build parallel generating facilities, transmission facilities, distribution facilities. What the constitution says is ‘don’t carry electricity to another state’s. Why are we for God’s sake, in a God blessed Ogun state have we not created a parallel electricity system? Why are we waiting for Federal transmission systems, Federal generating systems?

“We should create competition for them, let us allow investment from outside, let us allow competition for them from outside.”

Speaking earlier, the Executive Director for Research and Advocacy of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Barrister Sunday Oduntan disclosed that Nigerians spend about N12 Trillion on self power generation annually.

Oduntan also revealed that Nigerian homes and businesses produce 40,000 megawatts of electricity with diesel and petrol per annum.

Delivering a paper titled “Power for Sustainable Development in Ogun State,” Oduntan, who is also the official spokesperson for the DisCos, noted that self generation is propelled by lower power generation by the country, which requires 40,000MW to guarantee stable electricity.

He identified corruption, increased energy theft, regulatory inconsistency and confusion, liquidity crisis of the power sector, non – cost reflective tariff and limited power generation, as some of the challenges confronting the nation’s power sector.

Oduntan also lamented non-payment of debts by the Government’s Ministries, Department and Agencies with N203,819bn debts.

Going down memory lane, he noted that “There was no institutional and regulatory framework to govern progress and development in the sector until 2005. This is why the tariff is only recovering about 30% of costs. All these informed part of the reason why NEPA was insolvent, inefficient and underperforming. Between 2012 and 2014, $5 billion dollar was spent on self generation which could have given us an additional 5000 MW additional generation capacity.”

Oduntan added that “without resolving the issue of power, Nigeria will remain underdeveloped, with no major industrial or agricultural development. Many Artisans will remain Okada riders without stable electricity. For that to happen, the Political Leadership at the highest level must embrace the change mantra in the power sector by articulating and implementing clear cut programmes and policies that can put the nation first. Nigerians need to be more Honest.”

In their separate remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of Ikeja Electric Plc, Mrs. Folake Soetan and a legal practitioner, Ehi Uwaifoh noted that stable power supply would boost industrialization drive of the state especially in Ota-Agbara industrial hub.

Uwaifoh particularly called on the state government to create a regulation that would allow it establish a mechanism for power generation and distribution in the state, to drive its industrial policy.

ABUJA – A whopping sum of N14.7 billion, being proceeds of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) hidden in Commercial Banks has been uncovered.

The N14.7 billion, which was allegedly hidden by the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), was uncovered by the upper chamber of the National Assembly.

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts chaired by Senator Matthew Urhoghide, relied on the report of 2017 Auditor General’s report to unravel the hidden proceeds in commercial banks as at December 31, 2016, whereas the Privatization on PHCN has been concluded since 2013.

In its written defence to the Senate Committee, the BPE said, “two separate sums of N3.231,984.73 (allegedly held in Fidelity Bank PLC) and N18.199,520.87 (reported as held in Stanbic Bank PLC) are unaudited bank balances that were actually no longer in existence as at the date of the audited financial statements or asked questions, the matter would have been clarified.

“With respect to the two other bank balances N4.4bn (Access Bank PLC) and N10.2bn in FCMB -: The correct balance in Access Bank as at 31/12/16 was NIL as the bank had transferred a swelled balance of $34.1 million to the CBN domiciliary Account.

“The bank had initially been unable to make the transfer as at September 2015 as required under TSA policy, owing to the inexistence of designated USD Treasury Single Account for dollar balances

“The Balance in the FCMB Bank as at 31/12/2016 was only $36,053.55 following a transfer of $65,088,198.53.

“The residual balance remained until 18/05/17 due to inability of the bank to remit as required under the TSA policy owing to initial unavailability of designated TSA for USD balances as required under the then newly introduced policy.”

The Query reads: “Audit verification and reconciliation revealed that the sum of ₦14,720,396,432.43 (Fourteen billion, seven hundred and twenty million, three hundred and ninety-six thousand, four hundred and thirty-two naira, forty-three kobo), being proceeds from the privatization exercise of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) was reported in the Bureau’s Trial Balance to be in Commercial Bank Accounts as at 31st December 2016.

“Whereas the privatization of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) was concluded in 2013, the proceeds are yet to be remitted to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Privatization Proceeds Accounts.

“The issue has been communicated to the Bureau via letter reference No. OAuGF/RESAD/05/2016/07 dated 19th April 2018 and no response has been received.

“Unauthorised funds kept in Commercial Banks may be diverted for other purposes, thereby leading to loss of revenue available for government programmes.

“The Director-General is required to recover the sum of ₦14,720,396,432.43 being proceeds of PHCN and remit same to CRF and forward evidence of remittance to my office for audit confirmation.”