Accugas Limited, a subsidiary of Savannah Energy, and the Ibom Power plant have continued to trade blame over power outages in Akwa Ibom State.

The power outages crippled social and economic activities for three days in the state culminating in the sacking of the Managing Director of the Ibom Power Plant, Meyen Etukudo, by the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno.

The former MD had, in a statement while reacting to the power situation in the state, blamed the non-supply of gas from Savannah Energy as one of the reasons for the outage.

He said “Regrettably, our gas supplier, Savannah Energy recently sabotaged the laudable efforts of Ibom Power by cutting off the gas supply to the plant.

“This loss of gas supply coincided with a reported fault on the 132kv Itu-Aba Transmission line which transports from the national grid in and out of the state, hence the statewide outage” former MD  Ibom Power Plant said.

But reacting, the Communication Manager of Accugas Limited, Okwudili Onyia, in a statement, faulted the claims of the sacked MD of Ibom Power, stressing that the power situation was solely caused as a result of the fault in the 132kv Itu-Aba Transmission line

He said, “Accugas wishes to strongly deny the misinformation concerning its alleged involvement in the current power outage in Akwa Ibom State.

“The power cut in Akwa Ibom State is entirely due to the reported fault in the 132-KV Aba-Itu transmission line, which, unfortunately, is preventing power from being transmitted from the national grid into the state.

“It is imperative that the restoration of the Aba-Itu line is completed as soon as possible. Ibom Power Company is one of 23 thermal power generation companies that channel power to the national grid, which in turn disseminates all accumulated power to each state of the federation through the electricity distribution companies.

 “Indeed, Accugas supplies gas to enable 20 per cent of Nigeria’s thermal generation capacity and, as such, is a critical enabler of the Nigerian economy. Within Akwa Ibom State, Accugas has been the sole supplier of gas to IPC since 2014 and, together with other Savannah subsidiaries, has invested over $1.5bn in gas development within the state.”