The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Akwa Ibom State Command, has arrested a 23-year-old man, Ndifreke Jumbo, for attacking technicians of Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company.Jumbo, who was said to have owed PHEDC for six months, upon discovering that the company’s technicians had gone to his house to disconnect him, allegedly rushed to PHEDC office and paid a bill of one month out of the six months he was said to have owed the power firm.
The state Commandant of the NSCDC, Mr. Pedro Ideba, told our correspondent in Uyo on Thursday that Jumbo, together with his friends, seized the ladder from the technicians of the company and began to hurl bottles, stones and sticks, among other weapons at them.
Ideba said, “The men from the power company insisted on disconnecting Jumbo as the one month bill which Jumbo had paid was too small for a debt of six months he owed the company.”
The commandant stated that one of the PHED’s employees, Mr. Solomon Emmanuel, was injured in the attack.
However, Jumbo, who spoke with our correspondent, stated that he went to PHED office to pay for the electricity bill he owed them.
He stated that upon paying them the amount he owed, they still went ahead to disconnect him.
“When I came back from the PHED’s office, where I went to pay my bill, the technicians that had disconnected my electricity began to fight me.
“One of them, Emmanuel, stabbed me. I fell to the ground and fainted. This is all I can remember,” he said.
Emmanuel, on his part, stated that he used pliers to hit Jumbo on his cheek when he noticed that he (Jumbo) and the attacking youths did not want to let him and some of his other colleagues go.
According to Emmanuel, the company gave them order to disconnect Jumbo because what he had in outstanding was still much.
He said, “Emmanuel owed the company for six months and only went to the office to pay for one month. So we were given the order by the company to disconnect him.”
