At least 56 reported electrical accidents across the 11 Distribution Companies (DisCos) killed 56 persons, and injured 36 others in eight months of 2021.
This is according to a trend analysis of the eight safety ranking reports published by the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA).
This revelation comes at a time when the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the power operators commit to ‘zero incident’ in the power sector.
According to NEMSA, many of the electrical accidents that occur in the power industry are caused by system protection equipment failures, absence of protection devices, poor termination, poor maintenance of ageing networks, violation of Right-of-Way of power lines and poor response of the DisCos to monitored networks and the use of substandard materials.
The other factors are non-adherence to safety rules, inadequate knowledge of safety precautions by operators and ignorance of consumers as well as the vandalism of power equipment.
An analysis of the accidents, deaths and injuries on a monthly basis showed a rise and fall trend of occurrences in the power sector with March having the highest record and February having the least.
In January 2021, the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) reported four accidents occurring in three of the 11 DisCos along with four deaths of power consumers and four major injuries. A breakdown indicates that two of the accidents occurred under Eko DisCo, one accident was reported by Ikeja and Kaduna DisCo. Two persons died in the Eko accident, while one death each was reported by Ikeja and Kaduna DisCos. One person each sustained major injury under the networks of Ibadan, Ikeja, Kaduna and Port Harcourt DisCo.
The power sector witnessed three accidents in February 2021 occurring in Eko, Ibadan and Port Harcourt DisCos. While a staff member died in Eko DisCo, one other person died in Ibadan and another in Port Harcourt. Six persons also sustained major injuries with two persons each in Eko and Port Harcourt; one person each in Ibadan and Ikeja DisCo.
In March 2021, the power sector lost seven persons in 11 electrical accidents happening across seven of the 11 DisCos. Abuja, Eko, Ikeja and Jos DisCos had two accidents each, while Enugu, Kaduna and Port Harcourt DisCos recorded one accident each. On the fatalities, the record showed that one staff died each in Abuja and Kaduna. There were two third-parties or non-DisCo staff deaths recorded in Ikeja and Jos, respectively; one death of non-staff each occurred in Abuja, Eko and Port Harcourt. There were also seven major injuries with three in Ikeja, two in Ibadan and one each in Eko and Port Harcourt DisCo.
Accidents recorded in April were seven: one occurred each in Ikeja and Kaduna, while three happened in Jos and two in Port Harcourt. A staff member died in Kaduna while three persons who were not staff of Jos DisCo died, two persons died in Port Harcourt DisCo and one died in Ikeja DisCo. There were five major injuries occurring thus: one in Benin, two each in Eko and Ikeja.
Nine accidents occurred in May with two in Eko and one each in Abuja, Benin, Enugu, Jos, Kaduna, Kano and Port Harcourt DisCos. The accidents caused nine deaths, which include a staff of Kano DisCo; eight non-staff were killed in the accidents comprising two in Eko, one each in Abuja, Benin, Enugu, Jos, Kaduna and Port Harcourt. There was one major injury in an accident at Eko DisCo.
There were also nine accidents in June causing nine deaths and five major injuries. The data showed that four accidents occurred in the Eko DisCo network and two accidents under Jos DisCo. One happened in Benin DisCo, Ikeja and one in Port Harcourt DisCo respectively.
A staff member died at Eko DisCo while eight other persons who were staff of the DisCos died in the accidents with three deaths in Eko, two deaths in Jos, one each in Benin, Ikeja and Port Harcourt. The five injured persons include two persons each in Eko and Jos with one person in Ikeja DisCo.
NEMSA did not publish the July report. But in August, the industry had five accidents across Abuja DisCo, Ikeja (two accidents) and Port Harcourt DisCo (two accidents). One staff died in the Ikeja DisCo accident while four non-staff died with two deaths in Port Harcourt DisCo and one death recorded each in Abuja and Ikeja DisCo. Six other persons sustained major injuries during electrical accidents. Four persons suffered injuries at Eko DisCo, while one person each was affected in Ibadan and Port Harcourt DisCo accidents.
In September, the industry had eight accidents across Abuja DisCo, Eko (three cases), Ibadan (two cases), Ikeja and Yola DisCo. Three staff died in Abuja, Ibadan and Ikeja DisCo while five non-staff died across Eko (three persons), one person each in Ibadan and Yola. Two other persons sustained major injuries in the Ikeja and Eko DisCo accidents.
Meanwhile, the federal government has appointed Aliyu Tukur Tahir as the Managing Director and Chief Electrical Inspector of the Federation (CEIF) of NEMSA. The pioneer MD/CEIF, Engr. Peter Ewesor completed his second tenure early October 2021.
According to a statement by Mrs Ama Umoren of NEMSA’s Public Affairs on Wednesday, the appointment was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari for the period of four years which may be renewed for one further term of another four years.
Umoren who cited a statement by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Power, Mr Nebeolisa Anaka, said the appointment took effect from December 31st 2021.
Engr. Tahir was the General Manager, Technical Standard and Inspectorate Services (TS&IS) at NEMSA.
Source: Dailytrust
