From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Electricity Consumers from Rigasa, the largest community in Kaduna on Friday staged a peaceful protest at the operational and administrative headquarters of Kaduna Electric over epileptic power supply in their community.
The Rigasa Feeder which supplies electricity to consumers at Sabon Gari, Angwan Sanusi, Anyi Danmani, Asikolaye and Makarfi Road, all in Igabi local government area of the State is said to have made lives of artisans and other small businesses who depend largely on electricity for survival miserable.
In an interview with The Sun Newspapers on the sideline of the protest, the Head of Public Relations, Coalition of Electricity Consumers in Kaduna State, Aminu Nasir Jasawa said all attempts to bring the situation under control have not led to good electricity supply in the affected communities.
According to him, “we have had more than three engagements with the Management of Kaduna Electric on how people can pay for the electricity they consume.
“Between December and yesterday June 8, we have also engaged Kaduna Electric to look into epileptic electricity supply and issue worn-out equipment put in place in the past 45 years. All these engagements proved abortive.
“They called us for customer engagement yesterday with high hope of seeing a workable strategy that can lead to improved service delivery to the people. Surprisingly, they came, they made the same complaint that people are not paying even with the promise that the community will make people pay if there is a supply.
“What we observed is that there seems to be desperation on the ultimatum issued to them by National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) because there was neither any tangible commitment nor resolution from Kaduna Electric.
“This is why we are here this morning to tell the World that Kaduna Electric cannot do the job”, he said.
Youth Leader Kaduna South Local Government, Zailani AJ Musa, who was among the protesters also decried the modus operandi of Kaduna Electric.
“They supply not more than two hours in the daytime. The five hours they claimed they are supplying is only at night when we are asleep which means artisans and other small businesses cannot use the light to earn money in this hash economy situation.
“We have made a survey and the affected electricity consumer have agreed to be paying N5,000 if there is up to eight hours of supply daily”, he said.
Meanwhile, a copy of the handwritten commitment form by the Area Manager, Rigasa Feeder, Aliyu Saidu, pleaded with the protesters to shelve the protest promising to reschedule another meeting with the affected communities by next week Wednesday.
That commitment read “I hereby write to call up the protest and agreed to set up another meeting with the community involved come next week 14th 2023”.
