Taraba community accuses YEDC of illegal disconnection, vows court action

The Residents of Ministerial Housing Estate, located in Mallum, Ardo Kola local government area of Taraba have accused the Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC) of illegal  disconnecting them  from electricity supply without any prior notice. Mr Markus Ayuba, Chairman of the residents while briefing newsmen on Tuesday Jalingo complained that the black out had caused […]

The Residents of Ministerial Housing Estate, located in Mallum, Ardo Kola local government area of Taraba have accused the Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC) of illegal  disconnecting them  from electricity supply without any prior notice.

Mr Markus Ayuba, Chairman of the residents while briefing newsmen on Tuesday Jalingo complained that the black out had caused beconomic downturn as well as security threat to the residents.

Ayuba said that the estate was located on the 33kv power line that emanated from the Taraba State University Jalingo down to Sunkani in Ardo Kola local government area of the state.

He recalled that the company earlier changed the residents from the 34KVA power line to 11KVA, reducing their supply from 20 hours a day to 4 hours without any reason.

He said that the leadership of the estate took their complain to the YEDC office in Jalingo.

“We discovered a sharp change in electricity supply in our estate and by our investigation, we got to know that our supply line was changed from 33KVA to 11KVA power line.

“We lodged our complain to the YEDC Jalingo office and there was no response. It was when we went to the office for the second time that we were informed that their staff was assaulted.

“We made efforts to find out who might have assaulted him but they didn’t mention anyone rather accused us of being complicit in the assault and then asked us to produce the person who attacked their staff.

“We went back for the third time to plead with them and to make them know that we did not have a hand in the beating of their staff but they sent us away.

“We want to tell the general public that we are law abiding citizens fully metered and we didn’t send anybody to beat up any of their staff.

“Incidentally, the said fight did not even take place neither within our estate nor neighborhood and we do not have any knowledge of such. For this, we can not be held liable for a crime we did not commit.

“We expect the company, if they are conscious of legal procedure to have taken their matter up by involving security operatives who could have investigated the matter and brought the culprit to justice accordingly”, he said.

The Chairman said that the community had already taken legal steps by serving the company with Pre-Action Notice.

“Although the pre action notice duration is 30 days and if they fail to respond positively by restoring our electricity, we shall proceed to court.” he said.

Communities affected by this illegal disconnection include; Ministerial Pilot Housing Estate, Phase 1 and 2,  National Strategic Grain Reserve, Taraba Television
(TTV),

Taraba State Investment (Cucumber),
College of Agriculture, Science and Technology, Taraba State University and Ba,In Dutse community.

When contacted, Mrs Blessing Tunoh, Head of Information in the Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC) said that the company operate within the law and regulations.

“We operate with transparency and accountability, guided by regulatory and electricity laws.

‘Our recent Jalingo townhall meeting educated customers on complaints resolution mechanisms and redress systems, which we will encourage them to utilize.” She stated