14 August 2013, Abuja – Government activities were partially disrupted in Abuja, Tuesday following the power outage in some ministries at the Federal Secretariat complex since Monday.
This will be the third time in five months when the secretariat is cut-off from public power supply.
In April, the complex was without electric power supply for almost three weeks. Also, in June the complex experienced a two-day power outage which equally paralyzed activities there.
Yesterday, many civil servants at the ministries of Science and Technology; Aviation; Youth Development; and Tourism, Culture and National Orientation were seen loitering outside their offices as they could not do much of their work that depend on electricity.
The power cut affected the Blocks “E” and “D” in Phase one where the four ministries and a number of other agencies like the National Gallery of Art, and some units under the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, OHCSF, are located.
A staff of one of the ministries told Daily Trust that the power outage occurred Monday morning and was yet to be restored as at yesterday evening when our reporter visited.
Officials in the ministries refused to speak with Daily Trust, saying as civil servants they were not allowed to talk to the media without approval from their permanent secretaries.
“I can’t say anything; we are civil servants and need to get permission from the permanent secretary before we can speak to journalists”, one of the directors in the Ministry of Science and Technology, said.
The public affairs manager of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, Mr Debo Adegoke, could not be reached yesterday for comments on the matter.
A spokesman of one the affected ministries said the Head of Service’s office is in charge of maintaining the Federal Secretariat complex and so any enquiry about the power cut should be directed to that office.
– Zakariyya Adaramola, Daily Trust
