Nassarawa community groans over lack of electricity

Some residents of Masaka, Nassarawa state, on Monday bemoaned the lack of power supply to the area, while also lamenting over the cost of using generating set.

The residents, who expressed their pain in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), described their agony as unbearable.

They complained that they have had to live in darkness for over three months.

Mrs Lovina Elisha, a housewife, expressed unhappiness over the situation while calling for an immediate intervention from relevant authorities.

She said that lack of power supply had given merchants using alternative power supply to extort those who patronise them for services relating to power.

Elisha said: “In the absence of electricity, I take my phone to charging centres and they charge as much as N200 because they use fuel in their generating sets, which even costs more.

“This had been our plight for a while now. We need those in charge to come to our rescue because it is becoming unbearable.

“If this will continue, I may have to dump my phone at home and go without it because I am just a housewife and do not have a source of income,” she said.

Similarly, another resident, Mr Ebuka James, said that the situation has rendered some electrical appliances useless in several households.

He said that most people could not afford to store perishable goods in fridges or freezers anymore because of the inconsistent power supply.

This, he added, has cost so many households the loss of good amount of food.

Mr Timothy Dara, another resident who operates a phone charging centre, said that the situation was doing more harm than good to his business.

According to him, business boomed more when electricity is inconsistent and fuel is affordable for those with generating sets to alternate.

He, however, said that the inconsistent power supply alongside the hike in price of fuel made business slow and frustrating for all.

“At first, with the inconsistent power supply, people patronised me because I charged as low as N50, but now, because of the hike in fuel price, I had no option than to increase my charges.

“Unfortunately, I don’t get customers again because I charge as high as N200 per phone.

“Sometimes, I am forced to reduce it from N200 to N150 because not everyone can afford to pay N200 to charge a phone, with the drastic challenges in the country,” he said.

Mr Rownald Peter, an official of the electricity company in the Kuchikau area of the state, said that the power outage in the area was due to a technical fault in the power feeder serving the area.

He said: “Our engineers are currently working hard to restore power there. We plead for more patience from the people as all hands are on deck to get everything back to normal.”