Customs begins evacuation of 98 abandoned power equipment containers

By Efe Onodjae The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has commenced the evacuation of 98 containers of electricity transmission equipment abandoned at Nigerian ports for between 14 and 20 years. The first batch of 44 containers was released on Friday at ENL Consortium Terminal, Apapa Port, Lagos, by the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, and the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe.

The exercise followed a presidential directive to recover the stranded equipment and accelerate the rehabilitation of the country’s electricity transmission network. The consignments, imported for government-backed projects through the Federal Ministry of Power, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and Niger Delta Power Holding Company, include transformers, electrical cables, switchgears and other transmission materials.

Speaking at the event, Adeniyi said the release followed President Bola Tinubu’s directive after the Minister of Power presented the matter to the Federal Executive Council. He said Customs had introduced priority processing, dedicated examination officers and approved waivers on relevant charges to facilitate the evacuation. Adeniyi, however, described the abandonment of government-funded equipment by contractors as economic sabotage, warning that those responsible would be identified and could face sanctions, including blacklisting.

He said the recovered equipment would undergo technical assessment, with serviceable materials deployed to ongoing and stalled transmission projects, while obsolete ones would be disposed of in line with regulations. In his remarks, Tegbe said the abandonment had stalled transmission projects for nearly two decades, limiting network expansion and placing additional pressure on existing substations.

He listed Kaduna, Osun, Nasarawa and Cross River among states expected to benefit from the recovered equipment, which he said would improve transmission capacity, strengthen electricity evacuation and reduce supply interruptions. The minister assured that the equipment would not be abandoned again, adding that technical teams had commenced identifying projects for their deployment.

He said the government was targeting the evacuation of the remaining containers within one month. Meanwhile, shipping companies and terminal operators pledged their cooperation to ensure the consignments were evacuated without further delay.