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By Adewale Sanyaolu
The Federal Government has launched a crackdown on massive energy theft along the 132kV Ikorodu–Sagamu industrial corridor, where unaccounted electricity losses have risen to 100 megawatts, costing the power market an estimated ₦120 billion in annual revenue.
The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, announced the intervention during a high-level stakeholder meeting with industrial operators, key market participants, and energy regulators in Lagos at the weekend.
Addressing the gathering, Tegbe issued a firm directive mandating a transparent, science-based investigation into the substantial discrepancies between the volume of electricity transmitted along the axis and the energy officially billed and accounted for by distribution companies.
The Ikorodu–Sagamu corridor has expanded rapidly into one of Nigeria’s primary industrial manufacturing hubs, serving major heavy consumers.
However, enhanced visibility from technological monitoring tools deployed by the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) exposed troubling loading anomalies and severe commercial losses across the network.
Reaffirming the administration’s commitment to industrial growth under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, the Minister assured manufacturers of sustained power supply while maintaining that uninterrupted energy must be met with strict accountability and accurate billing.
Tegbe declared that the government will no longer tolerate meter tampering, deliberate data manipulation, or infrastructure interference, emphasizing that every consumer must remain accountable for actual power consumed.
The critical stakeholder engagement drew senior leadership across the energy value chain, including the Managing Director and Executive Directors of NISO, representatives from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), and the chief executives of both Ikeja Electric and the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company alongside corridor industrial representatives.
The Stakeholders were charged to cooperate fully with technical investigators to eliminate revenue leakages and safeguard the financial stability of the national grid.
