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Aba Power, Nigeria’s newest electricity distribution company (DisCo), has blacklisted one of its major wire and cable suppliers for failing to supply it with cables over the weekend.
The supply would enable the immediate resumption of electricity supply to a community in Abia State that had been without electricity for three weeks following the destruction of six high voltage (HT) poles in the area due to a windstorm.
The company also apologized to the Umuomainta Autonomous Community in Nbawsi-Nsulu, Ngwa North Local Government Area of Abia State, for not providing electricity due to the contractor’s failure to provide cables to reconnect the community to regular electricity supply.
In an email to journalists and stakeholders in Aba on Monday, Edise Ekong, Senior Manager of Brand Communications at Aba Power, said: “We are surprised that this contracting company failed to supply the necessary cables because its two warehouse workers traveled out of town over the weekend to celebrate Easter without making any arrangements to supply the cables from their shop to our on-site employees.”
Although the name of the company was not released at press time, it is known that the company headquarters is in Aba.
Ekong continues: “It is so annoying to see this community of nine villages without power during Easter after Aba Power paid the contractor the full advance and the contractor was clearly informed of the urgency of the situation.”
The Aba Power spokesperson disclosed that the poles were purchased from Abak in Akwa Ibom State and Port Harcourt in Rivers State due to the shortage of electric poles in and around Aba “and erected promptly, with our operations staff waiting three days to reconnect supply to this community, only to be let down by the contractor.
“We have no choice but to blacklist this company and immediately clamp down on any form of business dealings with it, even if this is the first time it has violated the terms of the contract.”
Aba Power has apologized to Umuomainta, pledging to resume electricity supply to the community tomorrow (Tuesday).
“We have just received telegrams from two traders who sold us the material at a high price due to the Easter holidays, so our operational staff is about to return to headquarters.”
Ekong expressed gratitude to the Umuomainta community elders and their followers for their support “when they saw our team installing the poles at the weekend”.
Meanwhile, Aba Power has appealed to the public to stay away from poles during rains because many of the “poles in our distribution network are weak and compromised.
“They were installed about 15 years ago in the days of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and from the looks of things, they did not meet the technical requirements.
“We don’t want any people to get electrocuted, nor do we want poles to fall on people.”
The communications manager said the company has lost over 70 high voltage poles and over 10 low voltage poles to wind storms and transport trucks in the last month due to “unprecedented economic activity in the state which sees so many large trucks at the Abia airport construction site, numerous homes, properties and development project sites.
“We therefore urge truck drivers to keep our cables and poles in mind when driving.
«In fact, it is in their interest to do so because contact with live wires is often dangerous.
“We thank God that in recent years no truck driver has been electrocuted in the fenced area of Aba.”
