PHED, Ahoada Residents Tango Over Black Out

Residents of Ahoada town, the headquarters of Ahoada-East Local Government Area of Rivers State including its environs and the authorities of Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) are now at daggers-drawn over the cause of total black out in the area.
“The people believe that PHED is deliberately starving the area of electricity”, because “The company is not meeting up the revenue generation target of N20 million imposed on staff in the business unit by the head office in Port Harcourt.”
A leader of Igwa autonomous community in Ahoada, Hon Isaac Itigwe told The Tide that “Last year, we contributed over N150,000 to repair a transformer, replaced armoured cable that was stolen before we got electricity supply during the Christmas period.
“Few days after the Christmas, PHED staff asked us again, to buy a new transformer, saying that the former one was wrongly installed, which made a major component to spoil”, he said.
Itigwe said that “In spite of this commitment, we are not getting light commensurate with what we are spending.”
Another resident, Sir Collins Eyee, who runs a mega-printing press in Ahoada, said “PHED has grounded businesses in Ahoada due to lack of electricity.
“The impression here is that PHED is deliberately putting us in darkness so that they could raise the N20million through the backdoor”.
“Every day”, he said, “they complain of bad transformer, stolen cable, vandalisation of poles, but now residents have decided to task themselves by providing security to this facility”.
However, the Public Affairs Manager of PHED, Mr John Oyil, who claimed ignorance of the blackout in Ahoada, promised to investigate the issues raised but said “Ahoada neighbourhood consumers are heavily indebted to us.
“Out of 4,913 customers in the area, only 1,440 are paying light bills, yet, we service our partners who are suppliers of gas and energy”, he added.
According to Oyil, in December, last year, out of N36.22million indebtedness, only N4.5million was recovered, representing 13 per cent while in November of the same year, only N5.7million out of N32.18million owed was paid by customers in the area.
“Please, tell them to pay their debts, so that we can serve them better,” he urged.
But on the poor revenue generation, both Itigwe and a cold room operator, Madam Evelyn Okpara, attributed it to poor work etiquette, lack of maintenance of equipment and sheer wickedness.
“How can they complain of low revenue, when Abuja Quarters, Onugboji areas have no light for over two years because their transformers are bad?
“How can they have more revenue when Odiemereyi road has no light for the whole of October, November and part of December?, they asked.
A staff of Immigration Training School, situated at Abuja Quarters, who does not want his name in print, confirmed that the organization contributed N50,000 out of N600,000 charged residents for the repair of a transformer.
“But do you know that the transformer has not been working for the past one year? he quipped.
Although, Oyil appeared not to have any answer to these allegations other than “I will investigate”, The Tide gathered that PHED may not restore light to Ahoada and its environs for many months to come.
One staff at the Ahoada office told The Tide that “This is as a result of system failure”, adding that “It will remain so, until your people co-operate with us”.