Power cuts hit eastern Nigeria

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Thursday, 7 June, 2001, 13:18 GMT 14:18 UK Power cuts hit eastern Nigeria

By Barnaby Phillips in Lagos The Nigerian Electricity Power Authority (Nepa) says 13 states, including the entire eastern part of the country, may be without electricity for two weeks after what it calls an attack by vandals on a vital transmission line.

Tens of millions of people in eastern Nigeria have been without electricity since Monday night.

Nigeria's Government has struggled to improve the country's notoriously inefficient electricity network since coming to power two years ago.

Nigerians are well accustomed to power cuts but rarely on such a devastating scale.

The huge area affected by this latest blackout includes some of Nigeria's largest and economically most important cities.

Struggling industries and public services, as well as private households, are already experiencing enormous inconvenience and discomfort.

Sabotage

A Nepa official told the BBC that a tower on a vital power line serving the east had been attacked by vandals and that it may take two weeks to repair.

President Obasanjo: Took charge of Nepa last year after blackouts Power lines in Nigeria are often sabotaged by gangs working for scrap metal traders, although in this instance one Nepa official is quoted as saying that no pieces had been removed from the damaged tower.

Last year an angry President Olusegun Obasanjo took direct charge of Nepa, accusing it of notorious and endemic corruption.

President Obasanjo has pledged to to increase output to a constant 4,000 megawatts by the end of this year.

But even if Nigeria attains this target, it will be producing one-tenth as much electricity as South Africa, with about three times the population.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1375000/1375651.stm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 07, 2001


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