Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, has called for a diligent legislative investigation into the nation’s persistent power outages and repeated grid collapses.
The governor made the call in Benin during an interface with members of the Federal House of Representatives ad hoc committee on power sector reform and expenditure.
Represented by his deputy, Dennis Idahosa, Okpebholo commended the chairman and members of the committee for what he described as their efforts in the Green Chamber and service to the nation.
In a statement issued on Wednesday by Idahosa’s Chief Press Secretary, Friday Aghedo, the governor said, “For us to have a robust economy, we must get the power sector right. The persistent grid collapse and power outage must be investigated.
“If we have stable electricity, Nigeria will be one of the best nations on earth.”
Speaking earlier, the committee chairman, Ibrahim Aliyu, said the lawmakers were touring states across the country as part of an investigation and audit of power sector reforms carried out between 2007 and 2024.
He said, “We are in Edo State in continuation of our investigative activities. We have so far visited two generating companies — Azura and the Benin Generating Company.
“Today, we engaged the Benin Electricity Distribution Company in a fact-finding mission to establish the truth of what they submitted before the ad hoc committee a few weeks ago.”
Commenting on the number of grid collapses recorded between 2024 and 2025, Aliyu said the development raised concerns about the factors responsible for the challenges and the effectiveness of the privatisation of the power sector.
According to him, the situation necessitated a “forensic investigation into the policies, strategies and roles played by each stakeholder within the electricity sector from 2007 to 2024.”
He added, “We are also making physical assessments of some of the issues, since projects are involved, and based on the different contributions made by the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“We are out to know the truth and see how we can make things right.”
Aliyu also commended the Edo State Government for what he described as its role in supporting power distribution, including efforts to boost electricity supply and provide transformers to subscribers.
The call comes against the backdrop of another collapse of the national power grid on Tuesday — the second within four days.
It was the second grid collapse recorded in January 2026 and the third in less than one month. The national grid had earlier collapsed on December 29, 2025, and again on Friday, January 23, 2026.
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