Some residents of CUDA, IBB, Satellite Town, and Edim Otop have expressed concern about the three-month-long power outage.
Residents stated that meetings had been held, and complaints to the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) had yielded no positive results.
According to them, the situation became more unbearable as other zones within the same community had reliable power while they remained in the dark. Bassey Okon, a small-scale business owner of a barbershop, told Sentrytimes that his barbershop was his main source of income, but the blackout forced him out of business because of the high cost of petroleum.
“I use a borrowed generator, but my service prices must remain constant because it is difficult to raise prices and retain customers, so we must bear the consequences, but this situation has hurt me.”
“The electricity bill is better than constant fuel consumption because I spend over 5,000 naira on fuel in a day and the amount we charge customers cannot cover the fuel bill unless I have a large number of customers, which is not always true.
“I can tell you, like many others here, that we have been weighed down, crippled, and left with no hope until the power people decide to look our way,” he lamented.
Many other residents have made similar complaints, claiming that the situation has exacerbated the area’s security situation by making them more vulnerable to insecurity due to the darkness.
Mr Stephen Okara, a business owner near CUDA, claimed that the problem was caused by an overload of the area’s main transformer, which caused it to fail repeatedly.
He urged the government to intervene in the restoration of their light issues, which have resulted in massive losses in the current bleak economy.
