Power Outage Delays  Senate Plenary for 30 Minutes as Generator Packs Up

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

Plenary at the Senate was yesterday delayed for about 30 minutes following power outage.

The outage was caused by the faulty generator powering the Senate wing of the National Assembly.

The development threw the Red Chamber into partial blackout as the lawmakers awaited the restoration of power supply.

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio,  commenced plenary after power was restored some minutes later.

Akpabio apologised for the outage and the heat in the Chamber, disclosing that about nine offices still experienced power outage as work was ongoing to rectify the situation.

Investigation by THISDAY revealed that air-conditioners in the office of about 20 senators are currently not working.

Akpabio said, “They are still working on the the light. it went off since morning. It is even affecting some of the offices on the fourth floor, we have about nine offices that they have not been able to rectify but they are working on it.

“They have assured us that before 1 o’clock the light will be okay. However, I have noticed even the press (journalists) some of them are fanning themselves at least they feel the heat also.

“If it gets too hot then we may have to adjourn for a while to allow them to conclude but they are working on it. I apologise for any inconvenience.”

The Chairman, Committee on Senate Services, Senator Sunday Karimi, also told journalists after plenary that the situation was caused by faulty generator.

“It is  an uncommon incident. Since the 10th Assembly, we’ve not heard this kind of experience. Often when were sitting, we use the generator. Unfortunately today, our generator developed a fault.

“It has nothing to do with the fuel issue. So, they have to switch to the second generator used by the House of Representatives. You will also observed that within 10 to 15 minutes of switching, our generator was restored.”