Dnako residents spend N2m on transformer yet in darkness

Residents of Dnako community, Bwari Area Council have been without electricity supply for more than two years since the transformer became faulty. Chief of Dnako, Garba Yuda, said the residents have given up on repairing the transformer having spent more than N2 million over the period. Aso Chronicle observed that the electric cables and poles […]

Residents of Dnako community, Bwari Area Council have been without electricity supply for more than two years since the transformer became faulty.

Chief of Dnako, Garba Yuda, said the residents have given up on repairing the transformer having spent more than N2 million over the period.

Aso Chronicle observed that the electric cables and poles are partially destroyed by storm while few of the residents now make do with generators.

Garba described the power outage as a major setback for the residents as it crippled business activities and the development of the community.

He said the silence from the area council administration is more disturbing despite several appeal for assistance explaining that repairing the transformer is beyond the financial clout of the residents whom he described as predominantly farmers.

His son, Shedrack Yuda said the money spent on the transformer could have been used to buy a new transformer only if they had the money in bulk.

“It was spent in piecemeal as payments to the repairer,” he said.

The community head added that the residents have been having difficulties in getting potable water until the intervention of the Association of Spouses of Heads of Mission in Nigeria (ASOHOM) that donated a borehole to the community.

He said the borehole is the only functional of the four boreholes in the community.

Garba said in order to ensure that the borehole serves them, the residents are divided into two with each group allocated different days of the week to fetch water.

He said each family also pays N50 used in buying fuel to pump the water adding that the borehole has not saved them from fetching from the stream because it is not enough for the teeming number of residents.

“We still fetch from the stream and to guide against infections, we always keep the stream neat. People don’t enter the stream with slipper and animals are not allowed near,” Shedrack said.

He however added that despite their efforts, there are still cases of water borne diseases like diarrhea.

Such cases of infections, he said, compound the community’s challenges due to the lack of a primary healthcare centre and medicine store to administer first aid.

“We use herbs as our first aid before taking the person to the healthcare centre in Gaba and if it is above them, we move to General Hospital, Bwari,” he said.

The residents appealed to the government to attend to their needs and also make provision for a secondary school and good roads in the community.