Nigeria’s harried Borno capital, Maiduguri, restored to national grid after insurgents’ attack

Ben Eguzozie, in Port Harcourt

Nigeria’s harried North-Eastern Borno State capital, Maiduguri, was finally restored to the electricity national grid two months after the recent insurgents’ attack in which power pylons on the Damaturu-Maiduguri transmission line connecting the urban area was destroyed.

The state capital and its environs had been in utter blackout for two months.

Thousands of residents were elated at the development, as many of them expressed happiness that at long last they could see flicker of public power in their homes.

For months, they had to self-generate electricity, in addition to dealing with rising cost of living as a result of higher inflation in the country, as well as recent increase in the pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS) or fuel.

Nigeria’s headline inflation etched up to 16.46 per cent year-on-year in January this year against 15.75 per cent recorded in December 2020, food index rose sharply to a record 20.57 per cent in January compared to 19.56 per cent recorded in the previous month, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The Boko Haram terrorists had previously destroyed electrical installations, with the bid to keep the state capital and its environs in utter darkness. It took frantic engineering savvy by the Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC) in collaboration with Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to restore electricity to the town which had seen horrendous trouble from the insurgents for over a decade.

The January attack that cut off the city from national supply was the third successive attack on the city in one month. The state capital has seen an increased activity of the terrorist group in recent time.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson of YEDC, Kingsley Nkemneme, confirmed the restoration of power supply to the city in a statement.

He said: “The management of Yola Electricity Distribution Company wishes to inform our dear valued customers that electricity supply is restored to Maiduguri and environs after completion of work on a faulty Damaturu-Maiduguri Transmission Line.”