Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — A small business owner and customer of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, PHED, has formally petitioned the company’s management over what she described as a wrongful disconnection that allegedly resulted in the loss of food items valued at N800,000.
Mrs. Abigail Nwachukwu Chukwuemeka, a food processor and Chief Executive Officer of Larachuks Foods, said the disconnection occurred at her residence at No. 20B Timothy Lane in Rumuola, Port Harcourt, while she was out of town attending a burial.
In her petition sighted by SweetCrude Reports, she maintained that she was not indebted to PHED at the time of the incident.
“I am a customer with Meter No. 27100198962 and I pay my bills within the approved time before the next bill,” she stated. “I do not owe light bill, but our electricity was disconnected when we travelled.”
She alleged that the disconnection was carried out by a team identified as PHED’s Task Force unit.
According to her, the timing of the action proved devastating for her small business.
“When we travelled, my deep freezer was loaded with processed foods worth N800,000,” she said. “I am a food processor and producer of small chops. The stock was meant to help me start my 2026 business after spending heavily for the burial.”
She said the prolonged outage led to the complete spoilage of the items.
“The action of your team has caused me a very huge loss, which is a big blow to an SME like me,” she wrote in the petition. “I returned to meet everything destroyed.”
Mrs. Chukwuemeka is demanding an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the disconnection, confirmation of her payment status at the time, and remedial action to cushion the financial loss.
“Kindly initiate confirmation of my complaint and immediate remedial actions to alleviate my loss,” she appealed.
As of the time of filing this report, PHED had yet to issue an official response to the petition.
The development underscores ongoing concerns among small and medium-scale enterprises in Rivers State about the economic impact of electricity disruptions, particularly for businesses dependent on cold storage and uninterrupted power supply.
