Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, has reversed his earlier statement regarding the alleged collapse of Nigeria’s national grid.
Following power outages in parts of Lagos on Saturday, Obi had posted on X, condemning the frequent grid failures, which he claimed had occurred 12 times in 2024, causing Nigerians “untold setbacks and hardship.”
He also highlighted the over $3.23 billion borrowed over the past four years to resolve electricity issues, yet the recurrent grid collapses continued to plague the power sector.
However, Obi faced criticism from many Nigerians who accused him of failing to verify the facts before making such statements.
In response, Obi retracted his earlier claim, clarifying that his statement was based on reports from trusted media outlets.
In a statement on his X account , Obi acknowledged the clarification from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and confirmed that there was no grid collapse.
”Following my earlier message regarding the alleged collapse of the National Grid, which was based on reports from reputable media platforms, I have since learned that there was no such collapse.
”Instead, the incident involved the tripping of the Osogbo-Ihovbor and Benin-Omotosho lines, which affected the Lagos axis. I appreciate the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) for their prompt clarification on the matter.
”I sincerely hope we will prioritize enhancing our infrastructure in the power sector and remain committed to improving power generation to meet the growing needs of over 200 million Nigerians.
”He explained that the incident had involved the tripping of the Osogbo-Ihovbor and Benin-Omotosho lines, which affected the Lagos area.
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Obi expressed gratitude to the TCN for their swift clarification and reiterated the importance of prioritizing infrastructure improvements in the power sector to meet the needs of Nigeria’s growing population of over 200 million people.
Earlier, the TCN had confirmed that the outage was caused by the tripping of the lines and debunked claims of a national grid collapse, labeling the reports as fake news.
