Following the operational incident report from Owerri, the Imo State capital, released by the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) on the invasion of its transmission line and seizure of staff, the Chairman of Imo State Electricity Regulatory Commission, Engr. Bede Okpara, has revealed that the operators who were held hostage have been released.

The NISO had on Saturday 15 November, 2025, in a statement signed by its Management, said: “Information received from Owerri indicates that the state government operatives allegedly acting on behalf of the Imo State Government forcefully entered and vandalised the control rooms at the Egbu 132/33kV Transmission Substation in their bid to force the operators to grant illegal outage.

“After forcefully effecting disconnection at gun point, all NISO personnel on duty at the affected facilities were held hostage and forced to open the breakers by the operatives.

“Efforts to reach the Imo State Government for clarification have so far been unsuccessful. However, contact was made with the Chairman, Imo State

Electricity Regulatory Commission, Engr. Bede Okpara, who confirmed

awareness of the incident and indicated he would revert with further information.

“As at the time of this report, no update has been provided, and no government agency or representative of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission has contacted NISO regarding the matter.

“The continued absence of official communication on the status of our personnel gives the NISO management a serious concern. Given the severity of the situation and the danger it poses to the national grid, NISO Management has resolved to wait until 6:00 p.m. today, 15th November 2025, to establish the whereabouts and safety of the affected staff and if no information is received, all transmission substations within Owerri will be disconnected from the national grid.”

However, in an exclusive interview, the Chairman of Imo State Electricity Regulatory Commission, Engr. Okpara, disclosed that the staff on site who were held hostage have been released upon his intervention and were allowed to  carryout their duty.

According to him, the issue emanated as a result of disagreement between Orashi Electricity Construction Company Limited – an integrated electricity provider established by the Imo State government through a public-private partnership with the Egyptian firm Madkour Group and the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) to put out power supply at the location where Orashi Company is working.

He said: “Yesterday, NISO called me as a regulator, that they heard that there’s an incident at the transmission station and asked that I should go and find a way and intervene and make sure that the issues are resolved.

“So, I promised that I will go there to intervene. When I got there, it is like the the EEDC, probably they are having issues with Orashi Electricity Company, Orashi is still doing their construction. And EEDC maybe trying to block them from getting outage to their work. So, Orashi company, I think, had to find a way to manoeuvre themselves to struggle for outage for their work. But when I got there, I saw a transpower band there the one I recognised and asked him what was the problem and he told me the much he told me that he came because one of the Iine went off and that the security men in police uniforms did not allowed him to get in. I think that’s where they were.

“And then I had to tell the security men that they should release these people and allow the transmission men to do their work. And asked that they release anything belonging to them, and any further harrasment should be stop. Then, I asked the EEDC man that I saw there, if they were manhandled by anybody and he said no, that he came for the purpose of the power outage. So, I asked everyone to go home and allow peace to reign.

“I also went to the man in the transmission operations room and asked what is going on, he told me, then, I had to tell the security man to leave him alone to do his job.

“And I had to go to the town to make sure that even the people who are supposed to be working, that they get out of the line so that these people, if there’s any issues, they should do their restorations and things like that. In fact, well, I didn’t, I didn’t see issue of, you know, further altercations or something from that, then I left.

He however said that he saw light everywhere, and that if there was any disconnection they must have restored it.