Kogi central communities protest blackout, bad roads

Communities in Kogi Central Senatorial District have raised the alarm over the failure of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) to supply them electricity in the past six months.

The communities under the aegis of Kogi Central Community Development Association (KCCDA), appealed to the federal government and the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to call the management of the AEDC to order over the perennial power outage and alleged exploitation of customers in their area.

A statement issued by KCCDA’s president, Comrade Musa Adinoyi and his counterpart from the Ebira Youth Congress (EYC), Comrade Baba Abdulrazaq, expressed worry over ‘the sorry state of electricity supply’ to people of the zone.

“It is worrisome that the same community that had a very cordial smooth business relationship with the then NEPA and PHCN is passing through a sore experience with AEDC. It is annoying when the company flies its monthly bills for people to pay for the power the company didn’t supply.”

The association gave two weeks ultimatum to the company to restore power supply and provide prepaid meters to every customer in the district free of charge to avoid exploitation.

Taking a similar position in Kaduna, the people of Ebira land (Kogi Central) resident in the Kaduna State capital have decried poor road network, lack of electricity and portable water in their homeland, saying the absence of these social amenities was making life difficult for the people.

The Chairman of Kaduna State chapter of Ebira People’s Association, Comrade Anabe Joseph mentioned this in a message to Kogi state Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello during a special prayer programme organised by the association in Kaduna. “There is palpable desperation in Kogi State particularly in Ebira land on the issue of water, road network, electricity and human capacity development and all these deserve your urgent and practical attention,”he said.