By Amuda Dan Sulaiman Fab
Residents of Lokoja, the Kogi State capital are lamenting over epileptic electricity supply, which according to them, is hampering economic activities.
They also called for the immediate sack of the Kogi Zone Chief Business Officer (CBO), Mr. Olaseni Agunpopo, which according to them is the brain behind the epileptic power supply.
The residents said Lokoja as the capital of Kogi State, has continued to remain in darkness and economic activities at standstill, due to incessant power outage.
They claimed that the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, (AEDC), is operating as an oracle, considering the way they handle customers with impunity.
According to the residents, the company is keeping them in perpetual darkness and charging the residents high because they have no option due to the monopoly in electricity distribution in the area.
They acknowledged the efforts of some AEDC staff, who are always doing their best to manage the obsolete equipment at the Lokoja Power Station, other Sub-Stations, and the step-down transformers, using their tools and vehicles.
In an interview with some residents on Monday, they claimed that they used to enjoy at least 20 hours of constant power supply in the past, but since Agunpopo
assumed office as the Chief Business Officer, the power supply has reduced to about 10 hours a day.
“What I have observed is that there is electricity in the early hours of the day till around 12pm, but from 12pm to 10pm, the supply becomes erratic,” a resident said.
In Cantonment, Hajiya Amina Musa said, ‘’Wuta a Lokoja ya bace” meaning, electricity has disappeared in Lokoja since the new CBO assumed office.
“Here, in Cantonment, we don’t have light, it is so worrisome. Before now, people used to envy us because we enjoyed long hours of power supply, but today, the story is different, if this is what the privatization is all about, then we do not want it, poor people who cannot afford generators are suffering,” she lamented.
In Old Market, Muhammed Abdulrahman urged the management of the AEDC to urgently look into the problem, saying the people are really suffering.
In Karaworo, power supply has drastically dropped since the new CBO assumed office, a resident of the area, Mary Akande, said.
“We used to enjoy up to 20 hours of power supply, unfortunately, the trend has changed, in fact, I run a salon so I had to buy a bigger generator and charge my customers more to maintain my business due to erratic power supply,” she said.
However, the management of the company could not be reached for comments but a worker attributed the problem to ‘low power generation.’
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