Delta residents lament ‘seven years of darkness’

Residents of Ogwashi-Uku, a community in Aniocha south local government area of Delta state, have cried out to the federal government to restore electricity supply to them after “seven years of darkness”.

Sam Obidi, a member of “The Forum’’, made the plea in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) on Monday in Asaba.

The Forum is a body working with the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) to restore electricity supply to Ogwashi-Uku.

Obidi said the economy of the area had deteriorated over time, resulting in the slow development of the community.

He said that with the recent step-down of power in Asaba and the adjoining communities of Issele-Uku, Illah, Ibusa, Ogwashi-Uku, the community would have had remarkable impact compared to when power supply came from Obosi in Anambra.

He added that micro and small businesses in the communities had suffered immense setbacks due to lack of public source of power.

Obisi noted that if electricity is restored, the community which hosts a state polytechnic would blossom, more jobs will be created and there would be a reduction in crime rate.

He said the high cost of operation in the area has caused computer business centres, barbing saloons, fashion houses, welders, other operators, to suffer.

He said that stakeholders in the community in 2016 committed about N20 million to the contractor handling the project to fix the transformers in the area, but they were vandalised.

“Those who managed to stay with their businesses in the past seven years have operated at higher cost and charges higher prices for their services at the expense of the community,” Obisi said.

“The situation here seemed hopeless as most-recently repaired transformers in Ogwashi-Uku have been vandalised in spite of the huge sacrifices made by the stakeholders in the community.

“We complained to the Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC), which directed that BEDC should supply electricity to the community with or without metering.”

Obidi said that the delay in restoring the power by BEDC , which had insisted on metering the community, had remained a major challenge.

According to NAN, efforts to reach the public relations officer of BEDC, Asaba zone, has proved abortive.