Residents of Owerre Umabor community, Eha-Alumonah, in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State at the weekend sought the intervention of the Senate over its one-year power outage in the area. They made their plea during an engagement between the Senate Committee on power, steel development and metallurgy and the power consumers as part of their 2018 oversight visit.

Mr. Emmanuel Ugwueze, who spoke on behalf of the community, said despite entreaties made to the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) for over one year, there was no hope in sight. “The transformer servicing our community had issues. After about six months of power outage, they came and removed it for repairs. Four months have elapsed since then, but nothing has been heard from them.

“We are appealing to the Senate to prevail on the EEDC to do the needful because businesses have been crippled in our community for this past one year,” he lamented.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who led other Senators to the event, had told the power consumers that they were in Enugu to feel the pulse of the people on the activities of EEDC.
He said though many are of the opinion that licenses of the discos should be reviewed, the Senate however think their areas of challenges should be identified and recommendations made for a way out.

He, was, however, quick to add that the Senate was not comfortable with estimated billing system. “We want to bring an end to estimated billing. We believe that Nigerians deserve a better deal. If you are doing estimated billing, there is also a scientific way worked out by the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

Meanwhile, Mr. Paul Okeke, Deputy Managing Director, of the EEDC, who led the EEDC team at the event, said the company was making steady progress, assuring it would address all the issues raised.

•Sourced from The Guardian report

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