Residents of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have bemoaned days of power outages, claiming that they have interfered with daily activities, businesses, and water supplies. Fatima Muhammad, a Kubwa resident, told Newspaper that the blackout had an impact on her home and bakery.
She claimed that some of her baked goods had gone bad because there was no electricity, and that she had ran out of water because she could not use her pumping equipment. Muhammad claimed that the interruption had cost her money and made it challenging for her to go about her everyday business.
Social media has also been used by other locals to vent their annoyance at the extended power outage and the electricity distribution officials’ response.
Before finding an update on the issue, Peace Kanu PIAK, a member on X, claimed that her neighbourhood in Dutse had been without electricity for two days.
“I appreciate the information. Please be aware, though, that Dutse, where I live, has been without electricity for the last two days. We now received your update. “Please expedite the restoration process, TCN technical team,” she wrote.
Christian, another user, blasted the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), claiming that locals had gone five days without electricity. The user stated, “This five-day lack of light would have been resolved if your team put the same effort into being proactive and making sure our complaints are resolved as you do into updating us.”
Residents of Area 8, Garki, have been without power for three weeks, according to a user going by the name Nazeerah. It has been three weeks since we last had electricity. She wrote, “Very, very unfair and overwhelming.”
Customers paying for Band A electricity were not getting a steady power supply, according to another user, BLVCKK.
“You guys are giving us one day in, one day out while we pay for B and A.” It’s starting to become a pattern. The user stated, “I think this is now rationing rather than defects.
Another X user, Dane Doug, also complained about the outage.
The user said, “Freezers are freezing, but there is no light across all the major areas of the FCT.”
In a same vein, Mark Itsibor bemoaned the extended blackout in Bwari, the Nigerian Law School neighbourhood, Ushafa, Bmuko, and Dutse and accused the electrical authority of doing little to resolve the issue.
“In the past week, what sort of hell have you subjected the majority of Abuja citizens to? Why do you act so irresponsibly? He stated, “Bwari, Law School, Ushafa, Bmuko, and the entire Dutse have been without light for days.” According to a newspaper, if the electricity situation doesn’t improve, landowner groups in Ushafa, Dutse, and Kubwa are organising a demonstration for Monday.
In the meantime, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) declared in a statement on Wednesday that there would be a planned power outage in certain areas of Abuja in order to do maintenance at its 132/33kV Kubwa Substation.
According to TCN, “during the maintenance period, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) will be unable to offtake electricity supply to customers in Kubwa, Bwari, Army Resettlement, parts of Dutse Alhaji, and adjoining areas.”
Additionally, AEDC notified consumers in some areas of the Federal Capital Territory on Friday that a technical issue on TCN’s 330kV Shiroro-Katampe transmission line was the reason for the disturbance they were experiencing.
The distribution firm identified the impacted areas as Garki, portions of Apo, Asokoro, Wuse Zones 1 and 2, Wuye, Jabi, Utako, Jahi, Life Camp, Gwarinpa, Kubwa, Dawaki, Dutse, Dei-Dei, Suleja, and surrounding areas in a warning posted on its X account.
According to AEDC, TCN’s technical staff is attempting to resolve the issue and bring stability back to the national grid. Customers were reassured by the firm that after the transmission line was removed, all impacted locations would have access to electricity again.
This comes weeks after Joseph Tegbe, the Minister of Power, stated that some electrical users had requested that he slow down in response to improvements in the power supply.
Speaking at the University of Abuja’s September commissioning of a three-megawatt solar hybrid power project, Tegbe said that certain communities that had previously gone months without power were now getting up to eighteen hours of supply.
“Places that had no light for three months now enjoy eighteen hours of light. “Look, I should slow down, because everything in their freezer is freezing,” he said.
In response, he said that freezers were made to keep food frozen. A freezer is designed to accomplish that. “Let it freeze the food that needs to be frozen,” he continued.