Why there’s power outage in Akwa Ibom – Power company

Ibom Power Company Ltd has attributed the current power outage in Akwa Ibom State to the unavailability of gas supply to its plant in the state.

Akwa Ibom has been without electricity for over 20 hours since Wednesday night, a departure from the stable supply enjoyed by the residents whenever other parts of Nigeria are in darkness because of the frequent collapse of the national grid.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the management of the Ibom Power Plant said, “Regrettably, our gas supplier, Savannah Energy, recently sabotaged the laudable efforts of Ibom Power by cutting off gas supply to the Ibom Power plant.

“This loss of gas supply coincided with a reported fault on the 132 kv Itu-Aba Transmission Line, which transports power from the national grid in and out of the state, hence the state-wide outage.”

The CEO of Ibom Power, Meyen Etukudo, signed the statement.

“While the Transmission Company of Nigeria is working to restore the 132 kv transmission line to import power from the national grid into the state, the management of Ibom Power Company has continued to engage the Management of Savannah Energy to restore gas supply to Ibom power plant, but the Savannah Energy has remained adamant, claiming underpayment from Ibom Power,” the statement added.

PREMIUM TIMES could not immediately contact Savannah Energy for their comment.

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Meanwhile, Akwa Ibom residents and entrepreneurs are counting their losses as they have resorted to powering their homes and businesses with power generators.

“What we are going through right now is devastating, considering the high cost of fuel,” a resident told this newspaper on Thursday. “How long can we continue to bear this suffering from incompetent managers of our resources?”