Three Suspects Arrested Over Attack On PHED Staff

A staff of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED), Mr. Ojong Achu was alleged to have been physically attacked and his vehicle vandalized by Community leaders in Ibekwe clan in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, for confronting them over vandlised facilities of the company in their locality.
A statement signed by PHED spokesperson, Mr. John Onyi, made available to The Tide, stated that Mr. Achu had approached a group of youngmen seen inside the Enem Idem 500KVA substation, losing the low voltage bushing, armoured cables and draining oil from the transformer, to ascertain their mission in the company’s facility.
The statement disclosed that the said transformer had been disconnected for non-payment of accrued electricity bills by consumers, in the community.
According to the statement, “trouble started when he (Achu) challenged the audacity of the suspects to cannibalise the transformer without authorization.
“The suspects immediately pounced on him for challenging their authority to access a facility in their community.
“Mr. Achu managed to escape and reported the matter to the PHED authorities who later alerted the Police that led to the arrest of some of the suspects”.
It said, those arrested were a former youth President of Ibekwe Clan in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Comrade Otobong Emmanuel Ekong, Joe Okon Asangha and Chief Inuaeshiet Ubeng.
The statement noted that when the Head of Uta Uwa Clan, Chief Akpan Uwah was contracted he denied sending anybody to reconnect or taper with the firm’s equipment.
The Clan Head was said to have condemned the act in its entirety and warned the youths against molesting PHED staff who are on legitimate assignment.
The Chief Executive Officer of PHED, Jay Mccoskey had at a recent public function, expressed worry over the spate of attacks on staff of the company.
He narrated the plethora of attacks to include a matchet cut on the arm of a staff member at Agudama, Yenagoa, manhandling of two staff members at Trans Amadi in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, release of dogs on staff in Calabar, the Cross River State capital and instructing security guards to beat up staff in Uyo by a physically exposed person, among others.
Mccoskey who stressed that the company management would stop at nothing to ensure that the perpetrators were brought to book, urged those in the habit of molesting, harassing and intimidating PHED staff on duty to desist.