Abuja, Nasarawa, Edo, 2 other states plunged in darkness as electricity workers shut facilities

Abuja, the nation’s capital city and its suburbs, were Monday thrown into darkness following the shutting down of distribution facilities by the protesting electricity workers for hours.

A statement by the Transmission Company of Nigeria said the evacuation of bulk power from electricity substations was disrupted following a shutdown of the facilities belonging to the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) by the company’s in-house workers’ union.

It was not immediately clear what issues led to the shutdown, but residents of Abuja reported outage for the better part of the day, with most residential and business owners relying on alternative power source for their needs.

Listed in the areas under AEDC franchise were Abuja, Nasarawa, Kogi, parts of Edo and Niger states.

In a statement by GM Public Affairs TCN, Ndidi Mbah, the company said: “The Management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN hereby inform the general public that it has available bulk power for delivery to the distribution load centres of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) to offtake for its customers.”

She further said: “However, power evacuation from injection substations across AEDC franchise area has been disrupted following a shutdown of the AEDC facilities by its in-house workers’ union.

“TCN regrets this disruption and assures Nigerians that normal bulk power delivery to AEDC will be restored as soon as the injection substations are opened for onward electricity supply to consumers.”

Similarly, the AEDC in a statement by its spokesperson, Mr Bode Fadipe, said efforts were on to resolve the impasse.

The statement was however silent on the reason for the industrial action.

It was gathered that consumers on 11kv network might be affected.

“Following the industrial action embarked upon by the National Union of Electricity Employees, power supply to some of our areas of operation, especially those on the 11kV network, may be affected. 

“We would like to assure all our customers that all hands are on deck to resolve the issues that prompted this action. We would also like to apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and disruption”, the statement said.