Borno state will soon be reconnected to the national power grid as the Military and the Federal Ministry of Power have reached agreement on security protection for engineers who will repair the vandalised power lines, Technical Assistant to Minister of State, Power, Engr. Umar Baba Mustapha has disclosed.
Engr. Mustapha who heads a Technical Committee set up a month ago by the Minister of State Power, Hon. Mohammed Wakil on the power outage said the military and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has reached final stage on the reconnection of Borno to national grid.
Insurgents had vandalised the 132 KVA power line from Damboa to Maiduguri cutting power supply to the state and efforts to reconnect the line has been hampered by ongoing insurgency and counter insurgency in the area.
Fielding questions from reporters who were anxious about the Borno power outage, Engr. Mustapha said the Minister had set up the Committee a month ago and that several correspondences have been exchanged with the Military to ensure the security of engineers who will work on the vandalised power lines.
”‘The Honourable Minister is constantly in personal touch with the Military authorities in addition to his written directive to the Management of TCN to effect the reconnection without delay. The Military has accepted the request of the Honourable Minister to provide security cover in view of the security challenges in the area affected by the vandalisation’, the committee chairman said.
“A team has visited the site of the vandalised power lines and both the TCN and the Military will soon swing into action”, he noted, adding that “the Honourable Minister is on top of the situation.
“The minister has written more than three letters to the military authorities and the response has been very impressive. Within the ministry, the Honourable Minister had issued written and verbal directives that the reconnection be done now that the security situation has improved in the affected areas. This directive is been urgently complied with”, Mustapha told anxious reporters.
On the exact time of the reconnection, the committee chairman said he would not want to disclose the details for operational and security reasons even as he reassured Borno people that “the Honourable Minister is as concerned and worried as them on the power outage”.