The long tale of woes
by some residents and business operators in Etche Local Government Area over a six-month blackout has ended as Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) has restored electricity supply to the area.
Our correspondent who monitored the development said most communities linked to the national grid in the local government area had light few days to the Christmas celebration.
A youth leader, Kelechi Oluoh, told The Tide at Okudu Mba that the light was restored on 23rd and that throughout the period of the festivity, the area had supply.
“I am indeed happy that the seemingly unending blackout has come to an end. I appeal to PHED not to allow any development that could subject the people to such a long period without electricity supply,” he said.
Also reacting to the development, Mr Ikechi Bennard, a businessman told The Tide at Okehi that the long period of blackout was a big frustration to his business.
I operate a laundry outfit. So without electricity, you spend your profit on private power supply.
We had suffered for over half of last year, I pray that such long period of outage does not occur again in the area,” he said while commending PHED for bringing light to them to celebrate.
The spokesman of PHED had told The Tide in an interview that the blackout was as a result of vandalism of some facilities of the company and the inability or refusal of some customers to pay their backlog of debt to the company.

Chris Oluoh/Alalibo Otonte Trudy