03 April 2014, Abuja – A cross section of Abuja residents have decried the deteriorating power situation in the territory, with a call on the Federal Government to urgently address the situation.
They made the call in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja.
Mrs Gladys Alade, a food vendor at the popular Area 1 Shopping Complex, said the power situation had gone from ‘bad to worst’ in the past few weeks.
Alade said the situation was adversely affecting her business and urged the Federal Government to find a lasting solution to the problem.
Alade said, “The power situation has gone very bad in the last few months and we just want to call on government to quickly fix the problem because we are suffering.”
Hajia Binta Garba, a housewife at Gwarimpa Estate, Abuja, said the epileptic power situation had made all the food items she stored in her refrigerator to go bad, thereby leading to a lot of wastages.
Garba appealed to the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company to do something urgently, especially with the adverse weather condition which was causing a lot of heat and health hazards to children especially.
A civil servant, Mohammed Isa, who resides at Karu, FCT, decried what he called the indifferent attitude of those in authority to the plight of the masses.
He said, “We don’t have light, there is fuel scarcity, even to get potable water is a problem, this is really very pathetic for a country like Nigeria.”
Another resident who resides at Kuja, FCT, Mr Monday Igado, said residents of the area had been suffering untold hardships as a result of the epileptic power situation.
Igado said some areas don’t even have electricity for days, while in other areas, the supply is like a flash for about 20 minutes.
He complained that most parts of Kuje do not have transformers, thereby posing serious challenge to stable power supply.
Igado called on relevant authorities to come to their aid.
“I think the situation is even worse in the suburbs like Kuje, because most of the communities do not have transformers and this is a big problem for us,” he said.
A NAN investigation also revealed that most of the manufacturing companies located at the Idu Industrial Layout, Abuja, now run on generators to meet up with their daily production.
Residents and Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurs at Gwagwalada, Abaji and Kwali had also complained of the worsening power situation in the areas, as it had grounded many economic activities.
Mrs Patience Toyo, the Head of Public Relations, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, told NAN that the company was working round the clock to improve the situation.
Toyo, however, complained of sharp drop in power allocation from the Transmission Company of Nigeria.
She said the company was presently receiving 366 megawatts out of the 500 megawatts previously being allocated to the company, hence the need to ration power supply to consumers.
It would be recalled that the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, had attributed the epileptic power situation to gas shortage and vandalism of gas pipelines.
The Federal Government had in November 2013 concluded the privatisation of the power sector, with a view to ensuring stable power supply in the country.
– NAN