By Henry Umoru Vanguardngr.com
ABUJA — STRONG indications emerged, yesterday, that heads may roll in the Aviation and power sectors following last Saturday’s power outage at the main terminal building of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja which grounded activities for over an hour.
The power outage forced passengers aboard the British Airways and other airlines to remain in the plane for the period the power crisis lasted after they had landed.
Angered by the development, the Senate has summoned the Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji and the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah to appear before it today to explain why the incident took place.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Hope Uzodinma, who gave the order after inspecting facilities at the airport with members of his committee also summoned the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN; Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN; Julius Berger Plc and National Integrated Power Projects, NIPP.
Speaking with journalists after inspecting the airport to ascertain the actual cause of the problem, Uzodinma described the recurring blackouts at airports as unacceptable and warned that it must be addressed immediately to save Nigeria from further embarrassment.
The committee members blamed the airport authority for not ensuring adequate power for their operations.
When asked why the committee visited the airport, Senator Uzodinma said: “Since the same thing has happened consistently about three times in the last three months, the development provoked our interest to come here to see things for ourselves. To know what really happened, the cause and to ensure that such ugly incident does not repeat itself again in future.
“We have been told that of the two dedicated lines of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to the airport, one has been recovered and given to the host communities, which is not a bad idea but the problem is that the recovered line has not been replaced. All over the world, airports are run on dedicated lines to avoid interruption.
“Secondly three of the generating sets procured and maintained by Julius Berger Plc that serve as alternative broke down at the same time. But in the wisdom of the Ministry of Aviation they have procured three new generators as replacement for the aging generators.
Also speaking, Head of Electrical, FAAN, Sam Dahua explained that the PHCN had since disconnected one of the two power lines dedicated to the airport while power from the remaining line was also being shared with the communities around the airport resulting in inadequate power to the airport.
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