Amah A. Amaonye, Abuja
As panacea to incessant power outages and security challenges on power lines, the Nigeria Forest Security Service has assured Nigerians that its operations will curb power installations vandalism, ensure security for maintenance of power lines in remote and forest areas.
The frequent outages and blackouts, including collapse of the national grid have obviously worried the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu; but the NFSS appears to be the enduring panacea to finally rest this ugly trend that has been associated with vandalism and insecurity.
As Nigeria’s await presidential assent of the Bill for an Act to institute Nigeria Forest Security Service (NFSS), a top officer of the security outfit has stated that once the body comes onstream, the incessant vandalization of power lines and other installations in remote and forested areas of Nigeria will become a thing of the past. Amb. Johnny Metchie, the DCG Intelligence of the NFSS affirmed that protecting electricity assets in remote hinterlands, especially the forested areas from vandalization is among the core functions of the outfit.
The DCG Intelligence was fielding question from reporters on the incessant power outages and panacea to vandalism of electricity transmission lines that run through forested regions of the country managed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). Metchie averred that establishment of the NFSS becomes a proactive measure to prevent vandalism, provide security for patrols, maintenance and installation of new power projects across the country.
“We have our men in the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT, as well as at the Local Government and Community levels, who are indigenes with knowledge of the terrains to secure these installations and protect engineers when they have to perform any work on the lines,” he said.
He further recalled the headache that frequent power outage often due to vandalism and sabotage has caused the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. “Not too long ago there was vandalism of transmission lines of the Shiroro-Mando 330kV SC lines, which disrupted power supply in many parts of the country for many days,” said the DCG, who further noted that the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu disclosed that insecurity hindered repair efforts on the lines at the time.
Recall that the Minister of Power confirmed that his Ministry was compelled due to insecurity on powerlines to collaborate with the office of the National Security Adviser and Nigerian Army to access the remote areas that are mainly forested for maintenance and to clear faults to restore power to parts of the country that were thrown into darkness due to activities of vandals.
The continuous tripping and failure of the transmission lines has often been attributed to activities of vandals. It is a general belief of opinion leaders and security experts that the NFSS once given the presidential assent will put the vandals and other criminals in remote hinterlands in check.
Late October last year, TCN through its General Manager Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah reported that its 330kV Ugwaji–Apir Double Circuit transmission lines 1 & 2 tripped due to a fault, resulting in a forced power outage affecting the communities in the North-east, North-west and parts of North-central.
At this time, said Mba, the TCN Shiroro-Mando transmission line was also down due to security reasons, causing a power outage in the North. She had also disclosed that the Ugwuaji–Markurdi 330kV Line 2 tripped and 243 MW on that line was transferred to Line 1 on the same route; but Line 1 also tripped, resulting in a total loss of 468 MW.
To patrol these lines over long distance and initiate maintenance on the lines and towers has not been smooth because of absence of Forest Security. The presence of the officers and men of the NFSS will ensure smooth patrol of the lines, navigating the challenging forested terrains to search, identify and clear the faults.
Ad-hoc security arrangements is neither efficient nor sustainable to face this situation anytime the need arises. The NFSS DCG Intelligence stated that unless a proactive approach and sustainable solution are achieved by empowering the NFSS, there will remain negative impacts on power supply in most parts of the country from vandalism and effects of insecurity on maintenance patrol and other new power project works.
As TCN has variously blamed its slow response to clearing faults and restoring power on challenging terrain and insecure areas in the forest, presidential assent to the NFSS Bill becomes the lowest hanging fruit to solve these problems.
According to the DCG Intelligence, “a permanent solution is required through the NFSS that has the numerical strength and national grassroots spread to station in the forests and confront insecurity headlong. It is not the same as calling in personnel for intervention from different locations, NFSS, he said, will man these forests on 24 hours basis throughout the year.
On the reports that the Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo stated that Nigeria will set up a special security team to protect its power installations and infrastructure, the DCG Intelligence affirmed that the NFSS remains ready to collaborate will all MDAs of Government and other security arms of the Government to curb crimes in all forms.
“We have been working well with the Police for our training, as well as in support interventions and intelligence gathering in the forested areas. Similarly, we have been collaborating with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in our training and other support services towards ridding our country of insecurity.
“We cannot do it alone, even in the forested areas where the NFSS will be stationed, whenever there is need, joint actions and operations of Police, Civil Defence and the Armed Forces will be required to ward off threats and secure the areas.”
“NFSS operations will bring to an end, the frequent blackouts and power outages experienced across the country as a result of sabotage and the activities of vandals to ensure that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu makes progress towards achieving the universal electricity access by 2030 as an energy-related development targets of this administration in line with the set SDG-7, he said.
