Residents of Ushafa-Ghudu Extension Community in Bwari Area Council of Abuja have cried out to the relevant government agencies over the under dealings of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), which has resulted in overloading of a 300kva transformer installed by the residents at a cost of about N2 million about three years ago.

According to the Chairman of the Community, Mr. Michael Momoh, who expressed his frustration, some staff of the Ushafa office of AEDC especially “one Mr. Emmanuel who claimed to be an engineer connived with some new residents in the area to connect them to the transformer against the agreement between the Community and AEDC to the effect that anyone who wishes to connect light from the transformer should first be cleared by the community. This was jettisoned and the said Mr. Emmanuel went ahead to unilaterally and expressly overload the transformer leading to an initial load shedding and finally a total blackout in the community for over three weeks now and still counting.”

The Chairman also alleged that to make matters worse, the AEDC Jigo/Ushafa Marketing Unit keep churning out exorbitant estimated bills to the residents even when they have no light, and that some of his members that paid for pre-paid meter since September last year are yet to be allocated one, “I mean this is a pre-paid meter that ought to be given to us free of charge, he stressed.”

The Secretary of the Community, Mr. Francis Ayuba, said the AEDC Jigo/Ushafa office through Mr. Emmanuel surreptitiously plunged the entire Community into darkness because of his own selfish interest and as a result crime rate in the area has reached an alarming proportion. To buttress his point, Ayuba said the Community is sandwiched with about two other transformers of 500kva capacity “that instead of Mr. Emmanuel to connect some consumers to those transformers that are underutilised the said he preferred to overload a 300kva because of some so called big men that are highly connected with AEDC officers.”

Momoh also said the Community had written series of petitions against the despicable activities of some staff of AEDC Jigo and Ushafa office and also requested for a new transformer all to no avail. He called on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Senate and House Committees on Power to urgently come to their aid by prevailing on AEDC Ushafa/Jigo and Bwari Offices to restore light to the Community, and stop forthwith, the exorbitant bills in the area. They also demanded immediate redeployment of Mr. Emmanuel and his co-travellers, as well as supply of a brand new transformer to the Community.

In the same vein, Momoh also called on FCT Water Board to restore water to the Community to cushion the effect of the untold suffering of residents and to prevent imminent outbreak of communicable disease in the area. “Can you imagine that Usuma Dam is by our backyard and yet water supply to our Community is epileptics?”

He appealed to the FCT Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Musa Bello, to urgently come to their rescue by connecting the entire Ushafa community the host of Usuma Dam to the main water supply source.

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