Residents of Acha Estate, off Emelogu Road, Ogbor Hill axis of Aba, Abia State, have decried the spate of unsteady power supply the area is experiencing.

Some of the residents who spoke to our correspondent said that since last year, they have been experiencing unsteady power supply despite claims by Aba Power, the firm providing electricity to Aba, that the city is enjoying uninterrupted power supply.

The residents, who spoke under the cover of anonymity for fear of being victimised, said that since early last year, Aba Power had placed the area on what they described as load shedding (alternating power supply) to residents in the area.

The angry residents said that despite the practice, before the area was metered in the last quarter of last year, each flat was given an estimated bill of over N50,000 and their protests over the high billing fell on deaf ears.

“Now that we have been given prepaid meters and we paid for power upfront, we hardly can see the light, even on the days that are our turn, we remain in darkness.

“The worst is that businesses that depend on electricity to remain afloat are folding as a result of the unsteady power supply to the area.”

Equally lamenting the security implications of not supplying electricity to the area, the residents said: “We now live in fear of the unknown at nights because everywhere is always in darkness and there’s no way we could dictate who is passing in front of our buildings under such darkness.

“With the prepaid meter in place, we have bought energy amounting to millions of naira, but we are not using it, we are not in any way adequately using the energy we paid for.

“What makes the matter worse for us is that there is no official communication to us from the firm on what the problem is and what they are doing to solve it.

“We know that Prof Barth Nnaji meant well for residents of the city by establishing the company in Aba, but we do not understand why we should be suffering this way,” they lamented.

The residents called on officials of Aba Power to do something urgently to improve power supply in the area.

When contacted, the Manager Communications, Edise Ekong, referred our correspondent to one Linus whom he said is in the Operations department and should be in a better position to respond to our inquiries.

Contacted equally, Linus said: “I am getting the report of the people not having light for the first time. I know the Emelogu Road transformer is not faulty, so, I wouldn’t know why they have not been having supply.”

He promised to get to the bottom of the problem with a view to fixing it. (The Sun)

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