Yuletide: Enugu Residents, Businesses Lament Epileptic Power Supply

Residents and business owners in Enugu State have expressed concerns over the current power outages in the state for the past two months especially in the Yuletide period.

They made their feelings known in separate interviews with journalists on Wednesday in Enugu.

The residents wondered why such outages occurred during Christmas and New Year celebrations in some parts of the country.

A restaurant executive, Anthony Chibuzo, told journalists that he spent a lot on diesel to chill drinks, run the air conditioner and preserve some perishable items in his freezer.

“I spend nearly N50,000 daily on diesel to run my restaurant. It’s not funny at all and I’m making little or no profits especially in this Christmas season,” he complained.

Mr Chibuzo appealed to the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) to urgently resolve the problem.

A hotelier, who preferred anonymity, described the situation as “embarrassing and chaotic” as his guests who lodged in the hotel complained about the incessant power outage.

According to the hotelier, I can’t boast of constant power supply for one hour at a stretch. It just comes and goes every one or two hours. It’s traumatic.

A barber in Ogui New Layout, Solomon Chinedu said he had to increase the price for his services from N500 to N1,000 for an ordinary haircut and above for other styles, in order to meet up with his expenses on fuel.

A mother of four, Adaobi Onyekwelu, said that she had stocked her freezer with foodstuffs for the Yuletide and wondered how she would preserve them without constant electricity.

“I thought that the situation would improve when the Enugu State Government had taken over power supply in the state. What changed?” she queried.

Decrying the situation also, a housewife, Blessing Ani, stated that the epileptic power supply affected her so greatly, saying that she would not cook for Christmas because there was no place to preserve the food.

According to her, the situation is very embarrassing and will affect her Christmas celebration.

“They will give us light for five minutes and at times before my kids could shout up NEPA, the light will go off.

“One of my neighbours just took the meat he bought for Christmas to cold room for storage,” she lamented.

Meanwhile, the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc has explained the recent decline in electricity supply across the South-East region to gas supply constraints affecting power generation nationwide.

In a statement released recently by the group head of corporate communications, Emeka Ezeh, EEDC said low system frequency, caused by inadequate gas supply to generation companies, forced the Transmission Company of Nigeria to implement load shedding, leading to reduced power allocation to distribution companies.

According to the utility firm, the situation has directly affected the volume of electricity available to EEDC and the quality of daily power supply to customers served by its subsidiary companies- MainPower, TransPower, FirstPower, NewEra and EastLand.

“The recent drop in power supply availability is due to low system frequency, occasioned by gas constraints affecting the Generation Companies.

“This development has necessitated the load shedding of available energy by the Transmission Company of Nigeria,” the company said.

Mr Eze appealed to the general public for patience as efforts were being made to resolve the problem.

(NAN)