The Abuja Electricity Distribution
Company has disconnected the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja
from its network due to the failure of the airport’s management to pay
electricity bills for about three months.
It was gathered that although the
management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, which is in
charge of the facility, had switched on its generators, the
disconnection of grid power supply by the AEDC resulted in some
disruptions to flight activities around 7pm on Wednesday.
Impeccable
sources at the NAIA and AEDC told our correspondent on Thursday that
the generators at the airport might have been overworked as they were
servicing the various terminals and the FAAN staff quarters on the
airport premises, a development that led to Wednesday’s outage.
An official at the airport, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to comment
officially on the matter, stated, “The airport has been disconnected by
the power distribution company. As a result, the terminals have been
running on generators since they were disconnected last Monday. The
generators supply power to the airport and the FAAN staff quarters.
“Maybe the load on them was too much on
Wednesday evening and this resulted in power outage at the runway. Of
course, the power outage made it impossible for flights to take off or
land on the runway during the brief period that it lasted. This
interruption was due to the disconnection of the airport’s power by the
Abuja power company since Monday.”
When contacted, a senior official of the
AEDC confirmed to our correspondent that the airport was disconnected
because it was indebted to the Disco for about three months.
Although the official could not state the
amount owed by the NAIA, he stated that the FAAN management in charge
of the facility had contacted the AEDC.
The official said, “I can confirm to you
that we have disconnected them. They owe us up to three months. They
have come to our office and there is the likelihood that we are going to
reconnect them back. But they must bring a letter of commitment that
they are going to pay, even if it is part of the amount.
“But it must be paid at a particular
point in time. They have come to our office for discussion and there is
the likelihood that by tomorrow (Friday) they will bring the letter.
Once they bring the letter, we are likely to reconnect them. But they
must make a firm commitment on when they will pay us.”
When contacted, the Head, Public
Relations and Media, AEDC, Mr. Ahmed Shekarau, told our correspondent
that he had yet to be briefed on the matter.
However, the Deputy General Manager,
Public Affairs, FAAN Abuja, Mrs. Henriatta Yakubu, explained that the
management of the airport had always ensured that there was constant
power to ensure smooth operations at the facility at every point in
time.
She dismissed claims that flights were
interrupted, stressing that the airport was always lit by standby
generators whenever there was power failure from the Abuja Disco.
“We make sure there is always power
supply as our generators are switched on anytime there is power failure.
The generators are put on as from 6pm, whether there is supply from the
power firm or not, and this is to ensure that there is no interruption
of flight activities in the evening and at night. This is a standard
practice acceptable globally,” Yakubu explained.
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