An electricity consumer, Jimoh Olarewaju, says the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) is aggravating the suffering of its consumers in parts of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Olarewaju, who resides in Kubwa, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.
He was reacting to AEDC’s notice to its customers in Kubwa Abuja:
The notice read in part: ”The power outage currently being experienced is due to the stormy weather that has damaged several critical equipment serving these areas.
“F01, Military Pension Board, Dantata Estate, Chikakore Community, Byazhin, Across, Arab Road, Mopol Barracks, Kubwa Extension III, FCDA Owners Occupier, Army Scheme, Phase 3, Phase 4, and environs.
”Our team of engineers are currently working hard to rectify and restore the power supply soonest.”
He said that the notice was not tenable as AEDC had come out with three excuses for the Kubwa electricity supply situation.
He said ”First they said it was the feeder pillar that had the issue, Secondly, they said some of their equipment was vandalised and now stormy weather damaged critical equipment.
”It is over one week that parts of Kubwa have been without power supply, before now we normally have it for two or three hours a day but now it is a total blackout.
”We have never had it so bad and it is unfortunate that AEDC can keep a whole community in darkness for days.
”What people are saying that the issue is a deliberate effort to sabotage this government as we all know that people are going through a lot presently,” he said.
According to him, with the removal of fuel subsidies, and the dollar issue, the only thing that makes people sit at home is electricity and this is not available.
Olarewaju said that consumers were complaining bitterly as it was affecting their businesses.
He said that small-scale businesses were affected the most as they use electricity to run their business.
”In my farm, I now depend on a generator to pump water to preserve the fish in the pond and most of them are dying
”At the same time, there is a scarcity of fuel, and people are queueing to get the product and the money is not there.
”We even learnt that there is enough electricity to transmit but the distribution companies are not taking enough.
“That is why people are saying it is sabotage, if the power supply is available we are ready to buy,” he said.