Protesters Disrupt EEDC’s Operations In Abakaliki

Some electricity
consumers in Abakaliki have protested the three-month power outage in some parts of the Ebonyi capital by disrupting operations at the Head Office of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC).
The protesters, who besieged the office on Awolowo Street at about 7.a.m., barred the staff of the company from entering their offices or engage in any official transactions between 7:a.m. and 10:a.m.
Our correspondent reports that the protesters, however, conducted themselves in an orderly manner while heavily armed policemen were on hand to prevent violence.
They displayed placards with inscriptions such as ‘No light, no payment’, ‘Give us new transformer and ‘We are not going to rest until this problem is addressed.’
Addressing journalists, the spokesman for the protesters, Mr John Ebube, said they were at the office to register their grievances against what he called negligence and exploitation by the company.
He said the protesters, numbering more than 200, were drawn from the affected areas.
Ebube, who listed the affected streets to include Igbokwe, Nkwogu, Nnewi, Ezejiofor and Obiri, added that the streets drew power from only one transformer.
According to him, the transformer, which is located at St Theresa’s Catholic Cathedral, has become old and can no longer carry the energy needs of the areas.
He said that in spite of the fact that the streets had no light for more than three months, the company still brought outrageous bills to consumers.
“We have sent delegations at various times to the company to complain of the outage but nothing has been done to address the problem.
“We are here to cry out and to let the world know that we have been neglected and exploited and we demand explanation from the company,” Ebube said.
But the company’s Principal Manager (Operations), Mr Dim Emmanuel, while addressing the protesters, called for calm and understanding.
Emmanuel said that efforts were on to find a permanent solution to the problem of incessant power outage in the affected areas.
He said the company had acquired a space, which had been fenced, where a giant transformer would be mounted for more effective service delivery.
The manager said that the problem of epileptic power supply in recent months was not peculiar to the state as it was a national problem.
Emmanuel said the problem was caused by acts of vandalism against gas pipelines that supply gas to power generation stations across the country.
He said the company only distributed the energy transmitted to it by generation companies.