TOTAL BLACKOUT REPORT: NIGERIANS ON TWITTER TACKLE PUNCH NEWSPAPER

Nigerians on the social media platform, Twitter, are tackling the Punch Newspaper over its report implying that there was a total blackout in Nigeria over a reported collapse of the national power grid on Saturday morning.

The newspaper had reported on Saturday that "the nation has been plunged into total darkness as the power grid recorded a total collapse on Saturday morning," quoting an unnamed source.

Foreign media organisations including UK tabloid, The Sun, also picked the report and implied that the entire country was in total darkness. But Twitter users including Mr kayode Ogundamisi and many others, criticised Punch for the report which they think is a misrepresentation of the true power situation in the country.

Ogundamisi (@ogundamisi) wrote, "@MobilePunch @TheSun lied claiming the entire Nigerian population was thrown into Total Darkness.

"The truth is that 8 turbines were lost but the rapid response AUTO unit kicked in and sustained up to 3000w as at yesterday. The 8 turbine lost did not affect ENTIRE NIGERIA.."

In reply to Ogundamisi's tweet, some Nigerians started reporting the power situation in their areas.

One of them is a Port Harcourt resident, Tzar Dmitri (@haryorlah), who wrote; "There is light in PH oh." 

Another Twitter user, Fueksy Megs (@fueksy) wrote; "I have power."

Ali Gumel (@aligumzz), also wrote; "There was a small issue with Natural Gas pressure yesterday, hence that might have caused some gas turbines to to shutdown. Pressure has since normalized and i'm sure full generation will resume shortly. Nothing like total darkness though, cos we had light yesterday"

But a few other users including Mike (@Akoji), shared their own stories that indicated that the power situation has been bad in some parts of the country.@Akoji wrote; "@akedcoplc supply us light for 1 hour weekly for a year now. You should know we live in total darkness normally."

Another user, Otunba Gadaffi (@OgunkeluB) wrote; "Oga there was darkness at my own end here in Lagos ooo."