Mkpoikana Udoma
14 February 2018, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt — Residents of Ogbum-Nu-Abali community in Port Harcourt, on Tuesday issued a notice to quit to the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, PHEDC, over power outages within the last one week.
The residents, made up of youths and women, issued the quit notice during a peaceful protest at the PHEDC transmission station along Nzimiro Road in Amadi Flats, near the CFC Bus-Stop in Port Harcourt-Aba expressway.
Leader of the protest and youth leader of Ogbum-Nu-Abali community, Mr. Maleku Worgu, demanded PHEDC to vacate their land, as the power outage has crippled economic and social life in the community.
Worgu said houses in the community were becoming empty as tenants were packing out in droves, due to lack of power supply in the area.
He disclosed that the landed property which the transmission station is built on, was given to NEPA free of charge. He noted that if women were to farm on the property, the community would have made lots of money from it.
According to him, “We are here because PHEDC has been neglecting our community so much, we have been trying to build a good relationship with them but they (PHEDC) do not want.
“We pay our bills but no power supply, even the epileptic power supply that they used to give us, we no longer see.
“This land belongs to us, we want to take over our land. Since 45years now, they (PHEDC) have been on this land without any commensurate payment to the community,” the protesting Ogbumnabali residents said.
Meanwhile, as at the time of filing this report, the management of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company was in a meeting with the residents of the community over the protest.