February 23, 2024
- By Reporter
Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff (CAS), Lt.-General Taoreed Abiodun Lagbaja, has called to the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, to intervene over the blackout in the Army barracks, stating that corpses in the mortuaries are decomposing.
The CAS wants the minister to intervene in the N42 billion electricity bill debt that has resulted in the disconnection of military formations alongside other customers of the power supply companies.
A statement issued by Bolaji Tunji, the Minister’s Special Adviser, Strategic Communication and Media Relations, revealed that the minister made the call when he paid a visit to the minister in his office in Abuja, yesterday.
It quoted the CAS as saying “Debt owed is loaded on the meter, so no matter the amount of credit we put, the meters pick it automatically.
“Corpses in the Army mortuaries are decomposing and the owners of the corpses are protesting.”
Lagbaja regretted that some barracks and cantonment since January have been in total blackout.
He further stated that it is impossible for the Army to raise funds to pay the entire debt and solicited for liquidation as was done in 2005 by the then President.
He assured the Minister of the army’s unflinching support towards developing intelligence strategies in curbing the menace of electricity infrastructure vandalism.
Responding, Adelabu assured him of his readiness to dialogue with Distribution Companies (DISCOs) to relieve the Nigerian Army of its electricity debt burden amounting to N42bn.
The Army Chief had described blackouts in army barracks and cantonment as security threats.
The Minister, who acknowledged that power outages are not peculiar to army barracks but a national issue said the DISCOs and GENCOs are profit-oriented organisations, and “we can only plead with them to adopt a repayment plan on a monthly basis instead of embedding the whole debt in their meter.
While encouraging the Army to continue assisting the Ministry in safeguarding power facilities across the nation, Adelabu pledged to seek collaboration for the Army through any of the development partners for installation of Solar PVs and Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) as alternative power supply in the army barracks and cantonment.
