Some irate youths have destroyed a 132KVA high transmission line at Ahoada area of Rivers state causing a total blackout in Yenagoa capital of Bayelsa State and it’s environs which has lasted over 10days .
While the situation last, the authority of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) has kept mum over the continued black out.
Some members of the Association of Bulk Bill Electricity Consumers (ABBEC) in the state has decried the deteriorating state of power supply in the state.
The group, in a statement made available to our correspondent in Yenagoa, lamented that the situation grew from bad to worse immediately after PHEDC slammed a fifty percent tariff increase on Bayelsans sometimes in July last year.Power stationSaharaReporters Media
“Few months after a fifty percent tariff increase by the PHEDC, power supply has dwindled to an all time low. Yet, at the end of the month, you expect the people to pay for electricity which they neither see nor consume, how can that be possible?”, the statement queried.
In the statement which was signed by its state chairman, Mr. Ebi Ozegbe, ABBEC expressed worry that its members were losing the confidence to face residents of the state to demand for electricity bills when the people were wallowing in darkness in the face of fuel scarcity.
ABBEC said it was considering state wide protest to register their dissatisfaction if the dwindling electricity situation in the state persists.
The group used the forum to call for the immediate removal of Mr. Moses Achi as the Business Manager of PHEDC over what it described as gross incompetence. The association noted that a plethora of criminal activities occur freely under the watchful eyes of the Business Manager ranging from none remittance of monies paid to staff of PHEDC, placing of transformers on zero billing and secretly collecting money, issuance of fake receipts and stamps, illegal connections and disconnections among others.
Meanwhile, the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Power, Chief Partner Jim-Ogbolo has confirmed, during the ongoing ministerial briefing to mark the 6th anniversary of Governor Seriake Dickson administration, that the ongoing power outage was caused by vandalisation of power station by some irate youths from Ahoada community in Rivers State.
Chief Partner Jim-Ogbolo,blamed the current power outage on vandalism on the 132KVA high transmission line by some youths in Ahoada area and a faulty 40MVA transformer at the Gbarantoru sub station.
He however assured that power would soon be restored as efforts are on to rectify the problem
