Over 1,000 Abuja households decry 8-month power outage

Residents of Old Viva Hospital and surrounding communities in the Sabon-Gari neighbourhood of Bwari town in Bwari Area Council of the FCT have decried living in darkness for more than eight months despite several attempts to restore power in the area through their own effort. City & Crime reports that the communities, with over 1000 […]

Residents of Old Viva Hospital and surrounding communities in the Sabon-Gari neighbourhood of Bwari town in Bwari Area Council of the FCT have decried living in darkness for more than eight months despite several attempts to restore power in the area through their own effort.

City & Crime reports that the communities, with over 1000 households, were thrown into darkness on January 2, 2024, due to the failure of a 500KVA transformer serving the area.

The affected communities include ECWA Good News and its environs, Old Viva Street, Ogunmodede Street, Asoore Close, Gideon Close, Dominion Church Street, Old Fire Service Street and parts of Ibrahim Yaro Way.

The residents said all efforts made to address the problem had yielded no result despite the fact that an area manager of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) was also affected by the blackout.

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In an appeal letter signed by Bishop David Asoore and Mr John Zaka, the community’s chairman and representative, respectively, addressed to AEDC, the council’s chairman and the federal lawmakers representing Bwari, the community requested for a new transformer.

They noted that they had tried on their own to repair the old transformer twice and spent over N2m yet there was no success.

They said they were now living in fear over their lives and property, especially at night.

When City & Crime visited the Bwari office of AEDC, a senior staff member, who craved anonymity, confirmed the blackout, and said that the transformer had been evacuated to the head office for repair.

He also promised that the AEDC would also provide a new transformer to the community before the end of May.