Emmanuel Ade in Abuja
Nigeria’s power grid recorded a severe safety disaster in the third quarter of 2025, with 33 people losing their lives and 33 more injured, with 57 power-related incidents reported across the country.
The figures, published in the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (NERC) Q3 2025 Report, highlighted the persistence of safety deficiencies within the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) despite years of regulatory warnings and enforcement efforts.
Incidents reported by electricity licensees during the quarter were spread across multiple power distribution zones, highlighting that exposure to unsafe electricity infrastructure remains a national rather than local problem.
According to the accident summary in the report, Ikeja power distribution area and Kano power distribution area recorded the highest number of accidents during the quarter, with both zones reporting 10 accidents each. Ikeja also recorded six injuries and four deaths while Kano recorded six deaths and four injuries.
Eko, Kaduna and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) also had notable activities, while Abuja, Jos, Aba, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Yola recorded varying but still troubling levels of incidents. In many of these cases, the accident resulted in serious injury or death, or both.
A closer look at the causes of casualties revealed a pattern of systemic weaknesses. Wire cuts emerged as one of the deadliest hazards, killing 10 people and injuring seven during the quarter. These accidents often occur when aging or poorly maintained power lines collapse into public spaces, residential areas, or roads, exposing unsuspecting members of the public to live electricity.
Additionally, unsafe acts and situations account for the highest number of injuries, tied for the highest number of deaths. The 10 deaths and 18 injuries were caused by unsafe practices and conditions, demonstrating a combination of human error, a poor safety culture, and inadequate enforcement of operating standards by licensees.
In practice, such incidents often involve technicians working on power lines without proper isolation, members of the public tampering with power infrastructure, or being exposed to energized equipment without protective barriers.
Illegal or unauthorized access to electrical equipment also contributed to the number of casualties, with two people killed and three injured during the survey period. These incidents are often associated with energy theft, unauthorized connections, and attempts to bypass meters, all of which place individuals at significant risk while further destabilizing the power system.
Vandalism reduced casualties in the quarter, but still resulted in two deaths. Vandalism frequently weakens the integrity of infrastructure, increasing the likelihood of wire breaks, explosions, and fires, which may not cause immediate harm to the perpetrators but can later endanger the broader public. The report also recorded nine deaths and five injuries from various other causes.
The report noted that in addition to human casualties, TCN recorded four cases of property and infrastructure damage due to explosions, fire outbreaks, and vandalism during the quarter. These incidents further highlighted the economic and social costs of poor safety performance in the power sector, beyond personal losses, including damage to critical national assets.
However, the regulatory commission said it would launch investigations into all reported incidents and take appropriate action if necessary. These actions typically range from compliance directives and penalties to mandatory safety audits and corrective actions.
The regulator said that as part of its oversight role, it holds regular health and safety managers’ meetings aimed at improving safety performance across the industry, bringing together utility health and safety personnel to review incident reports, share lessons learned and identify areas for urgent improvement.
Many of the causes identified in the report, such as broken wires and unsafe practices, have been raised repeatedly in previous quarters, suggesting that underlying issues such as aging infrastructure, insufficient investment in maintenance and a weak safety culture remain unresolved.
Similarly, during the review period, the regulator revealed that it had overseen the successful completion of two compensation negotiations between power companies and victims’ families, demonstrating continued efforts to address the aftermath of such incidents.
However, according to the report, 38 people were killed, 19 people were injured and 60 accidents were recorded in the last quarter (Q2).
“Compared to the second quarter of 2025, the number of accidents decreased from 60 to 57, the number of fatalities decreased from 38 to 33, but the number of injuries increased from 19 to 33,” the NERC report highlighted.
“During the quarter, all accidents occurred at the distribution level and neither TCN nor Genco recorded any safety incidents.Although all the discos recorded casualties, the licensees with the highest number of casualties out of the total 66 incidents recorded during the quarter were Ikeja and Kano (10) and Eko and Kaduna (8), accounting for 15.15 per cent and 12.12 per cent of the total respectively.”
“This quarter continues the trend of the distribution sub-segment being the biggest contributor to safety incidents in this sector. Discos accounted for 93.33 per cent, 100 per cent and 100 per cent in Q4 2024, Q1 2025 and Q2 2025, respectively,” the NERC report said.
According to NERC, the number of complaints received by DISCOs in the third quarter of 2025 was 168,033 across DISCOs. This represents a decrease of 26.06% compared to the 227,267 received in Q2 2025.
“Ibadan Disco received the most complaints (40,520) accounting for 24.11% of the total number of complaints received. Yola Disco received the least number of complaints (2,603) accounting for 1.55% of the total number of complaints received,” the report said.
