Godwin Oghre
16 July 2012, Sweetcrude, SAPELE – Many parts of Sapele, Delta State are groaning under serious power crisis and residents say this is a result of negligence on the part of Sapele Distribution Unit of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN.
Residents of Adidi Road in Sapele, specifically, have sent a save our soul, SOS, to the Federal Government to come to their aid by restoring public power supply to the area, following the negligence of PHCN’s Sapele Distribution Unit.
The residents, who staged a peaceful protest, said they were deliberately neglected by staff of the company, despite their repeated demands to the company for power supply, adding they had suffered unimaginable economic losses, while the activities of night robbers, who operate under cover of darkness, had become frequent in the area.
One of the residents, Mr. Benson Tobi, told Sweetcrude that the residents had written several letters to Sapele and Benin offices of PHCN to fix the only transformer in the area, which he claimed was given to the area by the state government, but with no luck.
He described as untrue, claims by officials of Sapele business unit of PHCN, that the transformer was damaged by flood, noting that on the contrary, the transformer was damaged as a result of negligence on the part of officials of the company.
When contacted, the Sapele Business Unit manager, Engr. Denis Okonkwo, said the Adidi Road transformer was damaged, when water entered its reserviour during a recent flooding of the area, which had presently made it difficult to repair and that unless another one was provided by the government, there was nothing they could do to correct the problem of power outage in the area.
