Flights Disrupted as AEDC Disconnects Abuja Airport Over Failure to Pay Bill

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company has disconnected the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja from its grid over the failure of the airport’s management to pay it's electricity bills for over three months.

Impeccable sources at the NAIA and AEDC told punch on Thursday that the generators at the airport might have been overworked as they were servicing the various terminals and the FAAN staff quarters on the airport premises, a development that led to Wednesday’s outage.

An official at the airport, who spoke on condition of anonymity stated, 

“The airport has been disconnected by the power distribution company. As a result, the terminals have been running on generators since they were disconnected last Monday. The generators supply power to the airport and the FAAN staff quarters.
“Maybe the load on them was too much on Wednesday evening and this resulted in power outage at the runway. Of course, the power outage made it impossible for flights to take off or land on the runway during the brief period that it lasted. This interruption was due to the disconnection of the airport’s power by the Abuja power company since Monday.”

 When contacted, a senior official of the AEDC confirmed the airport was indebted to the Disco for about three months.
The official said,

“I can confirm to you that we have disconnected them. They owe us up to three months. They have come to our office and there is the likelihood that we are going to reconnect them back. But they must bring a letter of commitment that they are going to pay, even if it is part of the amount.
“But it must be paid at a particular point in time. They have come to our office for discussion and there is the likelihood that by tomorrow (Friday) they will bring the letter. Once they bring the letter, we are likely to reconnect them. But they must make a firm commitment on when they will pay us.”