Dantsinke, Wuro Bagga communities decry lack of power supply

Complaints about undersupply of electricity, transformer failure and over billings have dominated the just concluded electricity consumers’ town hall meeting held in Kano, Kano Chronicle, observed. The meeting was organized by Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to enlighten electricity consumers in the state about their rights and obligations as key stake holders in the power […]

Complaints about undersupply of electricity, transformer failure and over billings have dominated the just concluded electricity consumers’ town hall meeting held in Kano, Kano Chronicle, observed.

The meeting was organized by Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to enlighten electricity consumers in the state about their rights and obligations as key stake holders in the power sector.

The meeting which brought together the generation company, state’s distribution company and the power consumers ended in a dead lock with the residents accusing Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) of complicity to their long standing challenges.

Some of the electricity consumers at the meeting alleged that they are being over charged even when there was no power supply for months due to faulty transformers.

The customers blamed KEDCO for their plight, alleging that the DisCo does not respond to their complaints promptly even when it was responsible for their numerous ordeals.

Among the communities affected are Dantsinke, a slum in Tarauni local government area and Wuro Bagga in Nasarawa local government area respectively.

The two communities shared similar problem which has to do with technical faults in their transformers. Kano Chronicle gathered that the communities had their transformers uninstalled by the DisCo after it was observed that the transformers could not adequately serve the fast growing population in the slums.

Nasiru Balarabe a resident of Wuro Bagga in Nasarawa local government area said for almost three years the whole community has been without power supply as a result of which many small scale businesses in the area were closed thereby subjecting the residents into untold hardship.

He said the transformer failed due to over loading and after the residents had repaired the transformer it was taken to another community.

“For about three years we have been having problem with our power supply from KEDCO and the problem started from the failure of our transformer as a result of over loading. After we repaired it, we were supplied with another transformer by KEDCO unfortunately even that one could not withstand the load and it failed again.The one we repaired which could not take our load was moved to our neighbouring community.

Dantsinke is another community that has been facing similar challenges. The residents of the area said they have been without light for over eight months due to technical break down in their 300KVA transformer.

Our reporters gathered that the community was initially given a 200KVA transformer by a sole administrator of Tarauni Local government during Kwankwaso’s administration, but as a result of the growing population in the slum the transformer could not serve the community due to its low caacity. Later KEDCO replaced it with the 300KVA that has gone faulty few months after installation.

Speaking to Kano Chronicle, the Secretary,  Dantsinke Unity and Development Forum, Malam Yahaya Musa said “it’s almost eight months ago that our transformer got faulty. Some people came and took it away. Later we discovered that they were KEDCO staff from Zaria road office. When we met them, they told us that our transformer was under repairs, they promised to return it within a week. However, it’s almost two months now and they have not bring it back.”

He said in their quest to ascertain their fate about the device some delegates from the community met the customer care representative of the distribution firm, Malam Abubakar Yusuf, who directed them on how to channel their concerns but up till now no solution in sight.

Musa said, “This problem is seriously affecting our local businesses such as welding, tailoring, grinding machine, local juice (zobo) making, cellphone charging and many others.

“We are appealing to KEDCO to come to our aid by addressing our problem.”

Another resident Ibrahim Hamidan Yusuf, who is the Patron of the association alleged that when the transformer developed problem the residents were compelled to settle their electricity bills.

“Initially, they brought power bills for about two months after the transformer was taken away. But we went and lodged our complain at their ‘Yan Lemo office. They promised to stop that which they actually did. Our fear is that the bills will keep on reading and accumulating. But we cannot ascertain that until our next bill is out,” Yusuf said.

He added that lack of electricity supply in the area had also affected healthcare service delivery at the primary healthcare centre in the slum thus subjecting the community to difficulties of taking sick persons to the city for treatment.

“Our hospital, which is the biggest in the whole of Tarauni Local Government, is not functioning. In fact, even during child immunization, the vaccines, which are supposed to be kept refrigerated, have to be taken to our neighboring community. a situation that always  hinders the imunization exercise in the area” Yusuf added.