From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja

Minister of Power, Mr. Joseph Tegbe, has directed stakeholders involved in the ongoing investigation into energy accounting discrepancies along the 132kV Ikorodu–Sagamu transmission corridor to be transparent.

The minister gave the directive during a high-level stakeholders’ meeting convened by the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) with electricity customers, generating companies, and relevant sector institutions operating along the corridor.

The engagement followed concerns identified through NISO’s technology-based monitoring systems, which has been enhanced since 2024 to provide greater visibility of electricity flows and consumption patterns across the network.

The monitoring systems have revealed increasingly anomalous loading and consumption patterns along the Ikorodu–Sagamu corridor, with discrepancies reaching as high as 100MW, representing an estimated ₦120 billion in unaccounted energy value over a one-year period.

The concerns have prompted an ongoing technical and forensic investigation aimed at establishing the basis of the discrepancies and determining whether they arise from technical, operational, metering, or other factors.

Speaking during the meeting, the minister stressed the need for all parties to allow the investigation to establish the facts without prejudice. He warned against energy theft, meter tampering, and manipulation of electricity data, while calling on stakeholders to cooperate fully with the investigation.

The minister emphasised that the process must be transparent, evidence-based, and fair to all parties.

In his remarks, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of NISO, Abdu Bello Mohammed, said the issues under investigation went beyond a routine technical matter, noting that they have implications for power system security, the integrity of electricity measurement and energy accounting, market discipline, equitable allocation of system costs, and public confidence in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI). He explained that the Ikorodu–Sagamu corridor had evolved into a major industrial load corridor following network reinforcement, additional transmission infrastructure, and the connection of large industrial customers, including eligible customers.

This, he said, had placed a corresponding responsibility on all participants to ensure that every megawatt and megawatt-hour entering and leaving the corridor was properly measured, accounted for, and attributable to the appropriate market participant.

Mohammed stressed that NISO was not seeking to prejudge any participant, but was focused on establishing the facts through credible technical evidence and due process.

In a statement, NISO said that some facilities had also received formal notices arising from preliminary findings requiring explanation, remediation, or further investigation. According to him, NISO has further strengthened its monitoring architecture by incorporating additional parameters, including power factor, active and reactive power components, and harmonic quantities, to assist in determining whether technical or measurement-related factors may be contributing to the discrepancies. The NISO chief executive called for the full cooperation of all stakeholders, particularly in providing access to facilities, meters, operational records, and relevant historical data required for the investigation.

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