Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Over 200 women on Tuesday barricaded the entrance of the headquarters of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, PHED in protest against four months of power outage in Aggrey Estate, old Port Harcourt Township.
The women, dressed in black attires, urged the Port Harcourt Disco to carry out its obligation by providing for them a transformer, while claiming that they have been in total blackout for the past four months.
Leader of the protesting women, Mrs Goodness Golden, said the protest was imperative as they have hitherto engaged with the management of PHED, but the company has been making bogus promises, which to date have not been redeemed.
Narrating the predicament of Port Harcourt Town residents to newsmen, Mrs. Golden lamented since the electricity transformer supplying power to the area developed a fault leading to power outage, they have been through untold hardship as a result of the situation.
“We are here because of our transformer at Aggrey Estate since October 2021 when it developed a fault, we have not had power supply up till today.
“PHED has been turning us up and down. Last week we were here, they (PHED) told us that they will give us transformer last week Friday unfailingly; we did not see the transformer, that is why we are here, we need a transformer.
“We have been in darkness for four months. Before now they have been coming to collect bills but since this thing happened, they never came for the bill again.
“We are not here for problem nor fight. We are here for our transformer. We do pay our bills, they said our paying rate was slow and we want to know where the money we have been paying has been going, who has been collecting that money? We are not leaving here without our transformer.
Another protester and fish farmer, Mrs Judith Yellowe, explained that the power outage has been a major setback to ber business.
“I am a fish farmer, I have a fishpond, my fishes are dying because there is no power supply to pump water and change water for the fish.”
Meanwhile, the management of PHED was yet to respond to the protesting women as at the time of filing this report.
