Residents of Gumel ,Hadejia, Babura and other local communities surrounding Gumel Local Government in Jigawa state, have been hit by power outage for over one month. This is as a result of the destruction of over 80 light polls by a sandstorm in May.
The high velocity wind which packed lots of sand, occurred on May 24, pulling down over 80 light polls as it passed. Communities served by the electric poles have been in darkness over a month after the storm.
Mr. Ado, a resident of one of the affected communities commended the efforts of the Kano electricity distribution company in trying to fix the prolonged power outage. He however decried the duration of the repairs:
“ it is no doubt that KEDCO— Kano Electricity Distribution Company, is taking necessary actions in trying to fix the polls that were destroyed by the storms, because I see them every day moving around and fixing polls and connecting wires.
It is taking too long; it’s been almost 5 weeks since we last had light,” he said.
ALSO READ: Our protest peaceful, CIG
A female staff of KEDCO who spoke on the condition of anonymity, appealed to residents of the community to be patient as efforts where ongoing to restore power to affected homes and businesses.
“We are also affected by the power outage because I live in this local government too, and we all know that the outage was caused as a result of the heavy wind that destroyed over 80 power polls in May.
I wish to inform you that KEDCO staffs are working as I speak to you to ensure that power returns to the state, ” she said. Uncertain of when power will be restored in the community she said,
“ if I say that we will have light today or tomorrow I will be deceiving you, the only
thing I know is that efforts are ongoing to ensure that the polls that fell are set back up so as to restore power supply to the community”.
By Joseph Chukwuemeka Ayo
