‘Faulty generator’: Power outage forces senate to delay commencement of plenary

A power outage at a section of the senate building in the national assembly complex on Tuesday forced senators to commence their plenary late.

The upper legislative chamber is supposed to commence sitting by 10 a.m. by its rules but under the leadership of Senate President Godswill Akpabio, plenary begins at about 11 a.m.

However, Tuesday’s sitting did not commence until about noon due to a power outage caused by a technical fault.

The senate has been using a temporary place – a hearing room – to conduct its business because its permanent place has been undergoing renovation for months.

When the sitting began, Akpabio said the parts of the building were experiencing technical issues.

“The light… they are still working on it. It went off since morning. It is even affecting some of the offices on the fourth floor,” he said.

“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, 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.”

On his part, Sunday Karimi, chairman of the senate committee on services, said the outage was due to a fault in the generator that powers the building.

“It is an uncommon incident. Since the 10th Assembly, we have not heard this kind of experience. Often when we are sitting, we use the generator,” Karimi said.

“Unfortunately today, our generator developed a fault. It has nothing to do with the fuel issue. So, it was time to switch to the second generator used by the House of Representatives.”