FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RAISES CONCERNS OVER VANDALISATION OF POWER INFRASTRUCTURE.

The Federal Government has raised serious concerns over the Vandalisation of critical power infrastructure, prompting the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, to seek the intervention of the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, on the protection of the facilities.

Consequently, a delegation from ONSA paid a courtesy visit to the Chairman of NERC, MUSILIU OSENI, in Abuja, to explore measures aimed at ending the persistent destruction of the infrastructure, during which both agencies pledged stronger collaboration in safeguarding critical power assets.

Welcoming the ONSA delegation, OSENI acknowledged the agency’s role in protecting national power infrastructure and stressed that sustained inter-agency cooperation remains vital in addressing attacks on the facilities.

The Director of Critical National Assets and Infrastructure Protection at ONSA, ENEBONG EFFIOM, also called for deeper collaboration, noting that safeguarding assets within the power sector requires continuous information-sharing and joint operational planning among regulators, security agencies and industry operators.

Both parties agreed on several immediate measures to strengthen efforts against vandalism, with key resolutions including the establishment of a joint stakeholders’ forum, the creation of a shared database to track assets, vandalism incidents and infraction reports for better threat assessment, as well as the deployment of a reporting platform to facilitate faster incident reporting, arrests and prosecution of offenders.