Protesting youths throw parts of Rivers, Bayelsa into darkness

Wednesday, January 31, 2018 4:42 pm

The Afam Power Plant

Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

Officials of Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company,PHED, have resumed discussion with representatives Oyigbo Youths Assembly who cut off power supply to Rivers state Government House Complex Port Harcourt and the Government Reserved Area, GRA, and other major parts of the Port Harcourt metropolis for the past three days.

The forced shutdown of the power station supplying electricity to Rivers State House occurred few days after some youths also forcibly shut down a Transmission Station in Ahoada Town, Ahoada-East Local Government Area of Rivers State.

The action of the Ahoada youths resulted in cut- off of power supply to Yenagoa, Bayelsa state capital.

Investigation revealed that since the outage due to the protest by youth from host communities of Afam plant, Rivers Government House and residents of GRA, have been relying private power generating plants.

It was gathered that members of Oyigbo Youth Assembly (OYA) had stormed the Afam Transmission Station in Oyigbo Local Government Area at about 10:34 am last Monday morning and barricaded the power facility

The youths complained that the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) has refused to supply electricity to communities hosting the Afam power over non-payment of electricity bills, a situation they described as a violation of an earlier agreement with the Federal Government.

The protesting youths vowed that members of the community will never pay electricity bills as the host of the power plant.

Spokesman for the youth group, Mr Light Nwankwo, said PHED is owing the host community over N10 trillion since 1962, even as he contended that the community has never paid electricity bills since the Afam power plant was built and would never pay.

“We have given PHED 24 hours ultimatum to restore power supply to our community or we will take the laws into our hands and shut down entire plant so the both the state and federal government house will be in darkness. Alternatively, federal government should either give us light free or they can evacuate their installations, we don’t need them,” he said.

While regretting the incident, Manager, Corporate Communications, PHED, John Onyi noted that such incidents always occur any time PHED initiates disconnection of power supply to the community following the non-payment of electricity bills in the last four years.

He also said that due to the intervention of the state Ministry of Power and other stakeholders, power has been restored to aggrieved host communities and Port Harcourt metropolis.

Onyi expressed appreciation to the Rivers State government for the quick intervention and stressed that dialogue has commenced with host communities.

Onyi noted that in January, 2017, a similar action was meted out to electricity users when the youth in their large number, forcefully asked the operator on duty to shut down the entire station.

The spokesman explained that the value of energy being wheeled to the community based on the statistical meter on their feeder was over N5.8billion cumulatively with an average consumption of over N140million monthly.

According to him, ’’Each time an attempt is made to enumerate the community for the purpose of accounting for the energy and sustainability of the power industry, it is always met with resistance from them.

“Worrisome also is the fact that all the commercial outfits in the area such as cold rooms, hotels, hospitals, welders, schools, among others, are not allowed to pay for energy consumed, yet, they are smiling to the banks with the proceeds of their businesses.

“On several occasions at different places, spanning over two years, meetings were held with relevant stakeholders, including the OYA in order to explain the implication of not allowing PHED to collect its money, yet, they pretend not to understand’’, he added.

Onyi said PHED was in business, adding that the survival of any business entity in the world thrives when customers pay for services rendered.

He assured that the distribution firm will continue to engage its customers to foster collective growth through the provision of electricity to legitimate consumers.

According to him, “It must be noted that electricity supply is not free,” as he appealed to Oyigbo Youth Assembly to vacate the Afam Transmission Station with a view to returning normal social and economic activities to Port Harcourt metropolis and its environs.

Meanwhile, Bayelsa residents have lamented the adverse effect of prolonged power outages on their economic and social lives.

Power supply to the state was cut off from the national grid on Jan. 23.

Many small business operators told our correspondent yesterday in Yenagoa that the development had adversely affected their businesses.

The situation, they added is worsened by high cost of petrol.

“For one week now, I have not seen any job to do because I don’t have the money to buy petrol and I am just praying that power is restored,” Okodion said.

Mr James Michael, an operator of a frozen food store at Onopa area of Yenagoa said that he lost all the products he stocked for sale within the first few days of the outage.