Bandits threaten blackouts in Niger, takeover power station

Bandits operating in over 50 communities in Niger State, have threatened to take over the control of Shiroro Power Station located in Shiroro Local Government Area of the North Central State some lawmakers have warned.

The Minority Caucus of the National Assembly, led by the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja.

Findings by the SUN NEWS revealed that the Shiroro Power station is a hydroelectric power plant on the Kaduna River in Niger State. It has a power generating capacity of 600 megawatts (800,000 hp) enough to power over 404,000 homes.

It contributes a significant megawatts to the national grid and supplies power to many states in North Central and North Western parts of the country. “The security situation is now very bad. Bandits may take over Shiroro Power Station. They may take over and blow up the place if the government doesn’t do the needful. That’s more trouble for us. It has never been this bad,” Abaribe said during the visit.

Recall that the Governor of Niger, Sani Bello, last week while addressing Journalist said that Sambisa was several kilometers from Abuja, but Kaure was just two kilometers from Abuja, insisting that nobody is safe anymore not even residents of the nation’s capital.

Speaking on the security situation in Nigeria, Abaribe said: “It happens. It happened to me in the East and my policeman was killed. These bandits are sophisticated. Abuja to Lokoja is a death trap. If it were to be in another country, they would have set a trap for these bandits. But we are different in Nigeria.

“Its unfortunate that APC came into power. If APC had not come in, Jonathan’s Government would have handled the insecurity problem. Nigeria is in too much trouble. We have to do everything to salvage the situation. We need to meet as a minority and decide on how to handle certain issues like Electoral Amendment Bill.

“We don’t want to fall into any trap. Let’s learn lessons from it. It’s obvious that traveling by road is now dangerous. No matter what you do, you must use the road. We need to continue to shout. If we stop, the rest of the country will feel despondent.”