Outages: Aggrieved Consumers Shut PHEDC Office In Rivers

President Muhammadu Buhari flanked by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Governor Nasir El-Rufai as well as Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State (right) as they discussed after the first meeting between the President and State Governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday.

Aggrieved electricity consumers in Borokiri area of Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, yesterday temporarily shut down both Aggrey Road Station and the Zonal office of Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC), Moscow Road, in protest over frequent outages in the area.
The protesters, numbering over 200 persons, disrupted operations at the zonal office for over an hour.
The protesters told The Tide that for over one week, residents in the area had not seen a flicker of light. They also complained that residents were being over burdened by high estimated billing regularly distributed to them to pay without actual meter reading.
One of the protesters told The Tide that while other parts of the city were having light, residents in Borokiri suffer regular outages, and wondered if Borokiri was not part of Port Harcourt.
The protester, who identified himself as Jumbo Jackson, said in spite the fact that they do not enjoy electricity, PHED was always issueing estimated electric bills to the consumers.
“We want the meters to be read instead of officers of PHED sitting back in their offices to estimate bills even when we don’t get service”, Jackson said.
Corporate Communications Manager of PHED, Mr. Jonah Iboma, who confirmed the development, said there was actually outage for about a week but noted that the company’s engineers  were already fixing the problem before the protest.
Iboma stated that there was electrical fault on the Borokiri feeder line which negatively affected the area, and urged the aggrieved protesters to exercise patience with the company while the fault is being fixed to restore supply in the area.
In a related development, hundreds of youth from Oyibo in Oyibo Local Government Area of the State have also attacked the company’s office at Afam, the council headquarters over repeated outages.
The Tide gathered that the youth destroyed a vehicle belonging to PHED, and also injured some staff of the company.
Reacting to the attack, the Corporate Communications Manager, PHED, Jonah Iboma, said the outage in the area was as a result of a technical fault at the 132 KV line belonging to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
He said, the problem also resulted in the outage at Okrika, Eleme, Rumuokwurushi, Artillery and Elelenwo areas.
“Our men had joined TCN Engineers in tracing the fault at Afam 132 KV line. We appeal for understanding and patience of affected customers.
We are doing our best to deliver service to the customers”, Iboma said.

Chris Oluoh