FG urged to stop military attacks on power companies

The Federal Government has been asked to take decisive action to stop the military attacks on electricity distribution companies.

Stakeholders who condemned the attacks said the act is capable of scaring away prospective investors.

The PUNCH reports that the Federal Government has come under fire for its silence over the attacks on electricity distribution companies by the military.

Within one week, the two distribution companies in Lagos were attacked by men in military uniforms, inflicting injuries on civilians doing their lawful duties.

As a result, stakeholders expressed concerns that the presidency, the Ministry of Defence, the Office of the National Security Adviser, and the Chief of Defence Staff appeared to have turned a blind eye to the military invasions which ought to be a national security issue.

Recall that on March 6, men and officers of the Nigerian Air Force from the Sam Ethnan Air Force Base in Ikeja invaded the corporate headquarters of Ikeja Electric in Alausa, Lagos, at the expiration of the ultimatum given to the Disco to reconnect their power supply, which was disconnected over a debt of N4bn.

Meanwhile, when the Discos had yet to recover from the shock of the IKEDC invasion, men of the Nigerian Army invaded the EKEDC substation in Badagry over a power outage.

In an interview with our correspondent, a professor of energy at the University of Lagos, Dayo Ayoade, urged the Federal Government to nip similar attacks in the bud.

According to him, the Federal Government’s failure to act decisively emboldened the military to invade the offices of the power distribution companies.

“The Federal Government’s failure to act in a decisive manner has emboldened the military to invade the offices of the DisCos,” he said.

The don argued that the second attack occurred because there was no action taken about men of the Nigerian Air Force who brutalised workers at Ikeja Electric.

“Because there were no public and strict measures taken against the Air Force, the Army also had the confidence to attack the Eko Disco’s facility in Badagry. If we are not careful, this matter will escalate,” he warned.

He noted that the government’s silence might encourage other institutions to attack utility companies instead of using lawful means to express their grievances.

“Don’t forget that every government agency, hospital, university, and individual is suffering under the huge burden of massive electricity bills. If these institutions resort to jungle justice, we don’t know where this will end,” he noted.

The professor called on the government to stop the attacks by punishing the military men behind the previous ones.

“That is why the government should act now in a decisive manner to proactively stop these attacks. It is against the law, and the fact that nobody has been singled out, disciplined, and punished publicly is the reason behind this. Those behind these attacks should not go unpunished,” he stated.

The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors argued that if the Federal Government had sanctioned the Nigerian Air Force operatives who attacked Ikeja Electric on March 6, their colleagues in the Nigerian Army would not have been emboldened to attack an injection substation belonging to the Eko Disco in Badagry on March 14.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, Sunday Oduntan, expressed shock that another Disco was attacked by the military within one week, underscoring the trend of military invasion of utility companies.

Speaking with our correspondent, Oduntan regretted that the Federal Government’s silence on the Ikeja attack encouraged the Army to attack the Disco office in Badagry.