Mkpoikana Udoma
02 November 2017, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt – The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, PHEDC, has commiserated with the families of those who died last week in Calabar following an electrical accident.
Recall that a 11KV feeder snapped on Tuesday, October 24, night at Inyang Street, Adak Uko, Calabar, and dropped on two buildings, setting them on fire. The two people who died (a lady named Rebecca and a young architecture student named Daniel) had tried escaping but stepped on the cable.
Witnesses said the disaster caused by the fire would have been reduced because the Fire Service Department was contacted on time, but on getting to the scene they had no water to quench the fire.
Acting Chief Executive Officer of PHEDC, Engr. Kingsley Achife, in a statement, assured residents of Calabar that the said feeder has been isolated to ensure that lives and properties are secured, adding that an investigation team has been constituted with a view to finding out the remote causes of the accident.
Achife, who also sympathised with those whose houses were burnt during the incident, urged the residents to remain calm and law abiding and to accord the team the necessary support during the investigation.
He urged members of the public and indeed the customers, to always adhere to safety rules by not erecting any structure under PHEDC high tension lines, adding that series of letters have since April 2015 been written to relevant authorities on why people should not encroach on PHEDC’s right-of-way.
Meanwhile, angry students of the Cross River State University of Technology, CRUTECH, have protested the death of their colleague, 18-year-old Daniel Asuquo, who was electrocuted when the high tension electricity cables fell on the roof of a residential building at Adak Uko, Calabar.
The students took their protest to the Calabar office of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company as well as the Cross Rivers State Government House.
Leader of the protesting students, Mr. Prince Harmony, said they called at the governor’s and PHEDC’s offices to demand an end to incessant death of citizens and students as a result of high tension wire fire incidents in the state..
Harmony explained that Daniel Asuquo was their colleague in the Department of Architecture.
