RESIDENTS of Orozo, Kurudu, Jikwoyi and Karu suburbs, all in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) of the Federal Capital Territory have condemned what they described as mindless and unacceptable blackout in the areas for the past two weeks with no explanation from the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC).
Many of the residents of the areas who spoke to our correspondent on Wednesday described the AEDC as insensitive for denying them power at a point when Nigerians were facing an unprecedented scarcity of petrol which many depend on to power their generators.
According to one Mr Eze Chukwujekwu, who resided in Orozo, power supply had been “very good until the Sunday before last when they [AEDC] suddenly took light for two consecutive days.”
He said since then, power supply to the area had been restricted to between 1am and 4 or 5am. “For most part of last two weeks, we sometimes wake up to see light around 1 or 2in the night, and when we are lucky we have until around 5 to 6 in the morning and it will be taken. At times, they don’t bring it at all for days and nights. It is a terrible situation for us; it is as if we are no longer part of Abuja,” Mr Chukwujekwu lamented.
Many shop owners, beauty and barbing salons as well as operators of relaxation spots operating along Orozo-Karu axis spoken to by National Record corroborated Chukwujekwu’s claims noting that the blackout has become unbearable and affecting their businesses. Everyone spoken to agreed that the situation has been compounded by the fuel scarcity as a litre of petrol at black market price hovers around N400 to N800 since Monday this week.
When contacted by National Record, Mr Donald Willie Etim of Corporate Communications of AEDC attributed the blackout to “instability of supply from the National Grid due to low Generation” and appealed for patience. He said “all stakeholders are working hard to restore system stability.”
Mr Etim said the challenge of generation is a national problem as the problem is being witnessed in other DISCOs particularly Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) whose load allocation from the TCN “has dropped from 440MW to 290MW due to low generation” leading to “massive load shedding across EEDC network.”
