PHCN, RSG To Partner On Illegal Structures Demolition

The Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) will in conjunction with the Ministry of Urban Development carry out demolition of illegal buildings and business outfits under its high tension cables in Rivers State.

The Chief Executive Officer of PHCN, Port Harcourt Zone, Engr. F.R. Onanuga, disclosed this while speaking during a public enlightenment lecture on the dangers of living and doing business under PHCN lines organized by the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), Rivers State Command at the Police Officers Mess, Port Harcourt, recently.

Engr. Onanuga said such illegal activities could cause loose of lives, and called for change of attitude.

He said most areas in Port Harcourt and its environs have failed to obey the instruction of giving some distance before erecting any building, which he noted, had been responsible in untimely deaths and hospitalization, stressing that people living in such areas are subjected to danger that could cause health hazards.

The PHCN boss, who was represented by a senior staff of the Safety Department, Mr Emeka Onochie, further hinted that the February 13 incident at Trans Amadi Zoo axis was not as a result of sub-standard PHCN materials, but due to vandalisation of the copa wire and tampering with its earthing, and appealed to the citizenry to rise up and challenge such illegal activities.

Engr. Onanuga commended PCRC for organising such an enlightenment programme, assuring that PHCN was ever prepared to partner with the state and local governments, pressure groups and other concerned organisations to enlighten the public on the danger of living or doing business under high tension lines by maintaining the right of way.

In his speech, the Chairman of PCRC, Rivers State Command, Hon. Austen Yong said the lecture was part of its social contract of addressing known and unknown fears and concerns of the citizenry towards ensuring safety standards, adding that security was a collective responsibility, and called on every stakeholder and other interested corporate sponsors, governments and individuals to partner with PCRC on such public enlightenment programmes under its community safety partnership.

Hon. Yong, who noted that the participants, drawn from 20 communities across the three senatorial zones of the state and other stakeholders, are free to suggest more proactive ways of collaborating with PHCN to address and forestall future occurrence of PHCN-related tragedies, however, said that the body had earlier in a group task suggested the need for government and PHCN to explore the possibility of using underground cables as well as calling on community leaders to support the government to ensure that the order given for the removal of structures under PHCN lines were adhered to.

Collins Barasimeye