The Transmission Company of Nigeria on Sunday said the national power grid has been restored following Saturday’s collapse.

The TCN Public Affairs General Manager, Ndidi Mbah described the collapse as partial, saying that “there was a partial disturbance of the grid at about 15.09Hrs yesterday, 6th July 2024.”

According to her, the incident “brings to three, the partial grid disturbances, with one total disturbance this year.”

The TCN spokesperson said the grid collapse is suspected to have been triggered by the unexpected tripping of three units of a power-generating station which she said suddenly removed 313MW from the grid, causing system instability that led to the loss of bulk supply to a section of the national grid.

“Meanwhile, the system operator reacted to the sudden drop in generation which led to a dip in frequency by islanding a section of the grid which includes the Ibom Power Station through which the company continued to feed Uyo, Aba, Itu, Eket, Calabar, etc. even when the other section of the grid had no supply.

“Also, the operators commenced grid restoration efforts immediately after the incident. At about 21.57 hrs yesterday, the entire part of the grid that was affected by today’s incident was successfully restored,” Mbah said.

Meanwhile, electricity consumers have condemned the repeated collapse of the national power grid.

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A checkconfirmed that power generation from all power plants dropped to a paltry 70MW at 3 pm after it peaked at 3916MW around 10 am on Saturday.

It was observed that the distribution companies got zero allocation as of Saturday evening.

This grid collapse came barely three days after the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission approved a tariff increase for Band A customers, from N206.80 per kilowatt-hour to N209.50/kWh.

While speaking with our correspondent, the Executive Director, Electricity Consumer Protection Advocacy Centre, Princewill Okorie, regretted that the grid keeps collapsing despite the hike in electricity tariff.

Okorie lamented that unmetered customers would still be made to pay for the period of the collapse, wondering what the government has been doing to stop the incidents.

“What are the causes of these grid collapses? Are the materials used in building the grip of good quality and standard? Who is managing the grid? The players in the sector are more interested in collecting money from the consumers rather than making the system stable.

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“What you hear more about the power sector is payment. The money that the international communities are bringing to the industry and the money that is unlawfully collected from the consumers, where are they being utilised? The operational expenditures of the DisCos, and how do they spend them?

“In the past few months, they keep increasing tariffs yet there is inefficiency in the power sector. They are interested in collecting money, but whether the money is judiciously utilised or not, nobody cares.

“They keep overbilling customers. The desperation to collect revenue from customers for services not delivered is a challenge.

“Now that the grid collapsed, the unmetered customers will still be made to pay for darkness. That is injustice. The government should address this issue of grid collapse once and for all,” Okorie warned.

Also, the Convener and Executive Director of PowerUp Nigeria, an electricity consumer right and power sector policy advocacy organisation, Adetayo Adegbemle,  said everyone involved in the electricity value chain should be embarrassed by their inability to stop grid collapses.

Adegbemle held that some people should be shown the way out to fix the situation.

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“I think everyone involved in the value chain should be embarrassed by the regular occurrence and inability to put measures in place to avoid this constant grid collapse. It is unfortunate because everyone throws the blame on others

“And I believe if heads had been rolling for people not taking responsibility for it, someone would have stood up to fix this problem,” he stated.

Suggesting the way out, Adegbemle said, “There’s a need to align the value chain, this was something the Siemens deal boasted to achieve. I expect that if the head of TCN, for instance, is to lose his job tonight, the next MD would be more willing to work with other subsectors to ensure this does not happen again.

“From whatever we need to forestall this grid collapses, it is definitely in the hands of the leadership of the TCN, especially.”

Commenting on the grid disturbance on Saturday, the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company said its TCN stations are out of supply, saying it is unable to provide services to customers in Abia, Anambra,  Ebonyi,  Enugu, and Imo States.

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“The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company wishes to inform its esteemed customers of a general system collapse which occurred at 15:09 hours today, 6th July 2024. This has resulted in the loss of supply currently being experienced across the network.

“Due to this development, all our interface TCN stations are out of supply, and we are unable to provide services to our customers in Abia, Anambra,  Ebonyi,  Enugu, and Imo States.

“We are on standby awaiting detailed information of the collapse and restoration of supply from the National Control Centre, Osogbo,” a statement by the EEDC Head of Corporate Communications, Emeka Ezeh, read.

Also, the Kano DisCo said, “We regret to inform you that the power outage being experienced in our franchise states is due to system collapse of the national grid. The collapse occurred at about 3:10 pm, hence the loss of supply on all our outgoing feeders.

“Power supply shall be restored as soon as the National Grid is powered back. Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience.”

Niger State Governor, Mohammed Bago, has come under attack for ordering his security aides to slap one of the Islamic clerics at a gathering.

Bago, in a video seen by The PUNCH, ordered his aide to ‘slap’ the cleric.

“Slap him, very well. I said slap him. Go and arrest him. Deal with him well-well”, the governor ordered.

He thereafter uttered a Hausa idiomatic expression which was interpreted as “I have power.”

The cleric, who knelt down, was dragged away from the gathering by one of the security operatives suspected to be an officer of the Department of State Services.

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Some of the people at the gathering were laughing and giggling when the governor gave the order.

The offence committed by the cleric was not known, but sources said he wanted to give the closing prayer at the event which the governor opposed.

Reacting on social media on Saturday, many Nigerians described the governor’s action as an abuse of power.

A popular skit maker, Debo Adedayo, popularly known as Mr Macaroni, wrote, “a governor who has sworn to serve the people is ordering a security agent to assault the same citizen he sworn to serve. See security agent too, flexing muscles on a man already on his knees. Continue pushing the people until they get to the wall.

“See my people laughing and giggling while their brother, a fellow human being like them was being assaulted by the same person that swore to serve and protect them.”

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Also an X user identified as @greatjoe01 tweeted, “I sincerely understand when people argue against state policing for fear of this kind of abuse of power from the governors. But what exactly are the governors not doing with the federal police now?

“Here is a DSS agent being ordered to carry out illegality. What are we afraid of?”

Speaking to The PUNCH, a human rights lawyer, Mr Deji Ajare, condemned the governor’s action, describing it as a violation of the cleric’s right.

However, when contacted, the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Bologi Ibrahim, said he was not aware of the viral video.

He said, “I am not aware of the video. Is it social media work? I will look for it, let me check.”

Some bandits on Saturday night invaded Dahjonu community in Millennium City of Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State and abducted two journalists -The Nation’s Abdulgafar Alabelewe and Blueprint newspaper’s AbdulRaheem Abdu as well as their wives and children.

Alabelewe is also the current chairman of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Kaduna State Council.

One of the victims’ family members, Taofeeq Olayemi, who confirmed the incident, said the bandits invaded the area around 10.30 pm and shot indiscriminately before carrying out their act.

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Olayemi said the bandits kidnapped Alabelewe, his wife, and two of his children, while Abdu and his wife, who was also sick, were kidnapped, leaving behind their sick daughter.

He said, “Initially, they picked Abdulgafar, his wife, and three of his children and a girl staying with them before asking the girl to return with one of the children and left with Abdulgafar, his wife, and two children.

“They shattered their doors and windows and removed their burglary after scaling the fence.”

Olayemi, who is also a neighbour to the victims, added, “They came around 10:30 pm on Saturday and started shooting indiscriminately.

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“They first forced Aodu’s door open and picked him and his wife and left their sick daughter behind.

“Then, they entered Abdulgafar’s house through the fence and jumped into his house.

“They went straight into his bedroom and picked him, his wife, and two of their kids and left immediately, after which the vigilantes arrived and started shooting into the air.”

As of the time of filing this report, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mansir Hassan, could not be reached for comments as his telephone line was not connecting.