By Residents of no fewer than 17 communities in Imo State have continued to wallow in darkness without access to electricity for more than a year.
The affected communities include Ulakwo, Egbelu Obube, Ngwoma, Umuchoko Obinguru, Upe, Umunam, Amafor, Umunakara, Umuekwune, Obokwe, Orishieze, Nguru, Umuneke, Obike, Umukabia, and Umuowa.
BlackBox Nigeria gathered that the power outage was caused by some damaged electricity cables.
Narrating the situation, a Twitter user, @Jerrykab2, on Monday, stated that the communities contributed N1.5 million each to find a lasting solution to the power situation but nothing has changed since then.
“Every time we call the substation, they keep telling us they are on it. Till date, it hasn’t been rectified, the youths have started planning a protest,” he said.
All the communities were told to donate about 1.5m each for the problem to be rectified, which they donated since last year and every time we call the substation, they keep telling us they are on it, till date, it hasn’t been rectified, the youths have started planning a protest.
— Macarthy (@Jerrykab2) February 7, 2022
Replying to the tweet via its official Twitter handle, the concerned disco, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company denied that it asked the communities to make any payment, saying it never task its customers to pay for repairs.
Enugu Disco said, “We do not request our customers to contribute money for any repairs/replacement. The money you said you contributed could be for payment of debts your community owed. Who did you pay the money to? Into which account? This will help us investigate further.”
We do not request our customers to contribute money for any repairs/replacement. The money you said you contributed could be for payment of debts your community owed. Who did you pay the money to? Into which account? This will , help us investigate further.
— Enugu Electricity Distribution Plc. (@enugudisco) February 7, 2022
We have escalated this issue to the office serving your location and were told that such collection never took place by our office. We do not task our customers to pay for repairs.
— Enugu Electricity Distribution Plc. (@enugudisco) February 8, 2022
Amid the back and forth exchange, residents of the affected communities wonder when Enugu Disco will resolve the lingering power outage which has since negatively impacted economic activities and crippled businesses in the areas.
