By Ummi Ismaeel
Minna
The hope of Dutsen Kura-Gwari community, Minna metropolis to end months of blackout especially during the Christmas and the New year festive season may not be possible after. The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) in the state maintained that it could do nothing to have the dreams of the people actualized.
The community for months has been in darkness due to bad transformer which could no longer accommodate the daily increase in population, one of the residents, Mrs. Janet Ibrahim, a trader who operates a cold room, lamented.
Investigations revealed that the transformer has been over-stretched its capacity to accommodate the number of customers as houses spring up therein daily with legal and illegal connection of electricity.
Mass protest by some groups in Niger State who were not happy that despite having three power generating dams; Jebba, Shiroro and Kainji, parts of the state, including Minna, the state capital and its environs have been in darkness.
The protesters who registered their grievances to Governor Sani Bello and the State House of Assembly on Tuesday and gave the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) ultimatum to either restore electricity to parts of the state or face their wrath however yielded results.
But electricity supply for Dutsen Kura-Gwari was short-lives as it lasted for only few hours and went off due to what one of the staff who would not want his names in print said was ‘due to transformer breakdown’.
“The transformer serving the area has been over-stretched and overloaded due to the daily increase in population of people connecting electricity legally and illegally to their homes and business premises and this causes constant breakdown of the transformer”, he said.
The community through one of the leaders had made timeless efforts to have the transformer replaced to accommodate more electricity consumers but this has not been possible due to the conditions given by the AEDC field staff.
The AEDC Regional Manager, Elisha Yakubu, when contacted said that his office could not do anything for now but that he has written to the AEDC headquarters in Abuja and except they act fast the community will remain in darkness.
“I am aware of the blackout around Dutsen Kura-Gwari, one of the communities in Bosso Business unit. We have written a report to our headquarters in Abuja and until they respond we cannot do anything to help the situation”, Elisha said.
