The commercial city of Onitsha in Anambra State has been thrown into darkness for about three weeks now following power outage in the city.
Most parts of the city, especially its commercial areas, have not witnessed a flash of electricity for three consecutive weeks.
Some shops are on the verge of winding up as owners complained of high cost of running their business on generators.
Dr. Chukwuemeka Obi, who owns a printing press at Old Market Road, said that the situation had not been this bad for some years now.
“I spent between N5,000 and N10,000 each day to run my generating plant to deliver on the promises I made to my customers.
“The irony of the whole issue is that we still receive high bills from the electricity distribution company,’’ Obi said.
Mr Francis Okeke, a cyber café operator on Awka Road, said that the cost of doing petty businesses in Onitsha had been surging daily due to non-availability of power.
“I spend about N2,000 to N5,000 daily on generator to run this café. With the way the situation is going, if it continues in the next two weeks, I will be forced out of business,’’ he said.
Okeke, however, called on the government and new investors in electricity distribution to urgently address the situation before it got out of hand.
“The ugly situation is taking financial and health toll on the people,” Okeke said.
Mr Ifeanyi Uzor, a resident of Modebe Avenue, said the situation posed serious health and financial challenges to residents due to the hot weather.
Uzor said that children were worse hit as many of them screamed at night due to persistent heat and sometimes mosquito bites.
Mr Tochukwu Anyanwu, a resident on Bishop Onyeabo Street, said he could not contend with the noise of generating sets as most residents use generators, which he said, were often not meant for domestic use.
“Notwithstanding the heat, you have to contend with noisy grinding machines and vehicle engines converted to generating sets.
“It is like living next to hell in my neighbourhood at night with thunderous noise everywhere such that can aggravate one’s blood pressure,’’ he said.
Reacting, Mr Kingsley Aja, the Business Manager of Onitsha Unit of Eastern Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), said that the challenge of erratic power in the commercial city was due to shortage in electricity transmission to Onitsha.
Aja said that the business unit had no local distribution problem since virtually all installations under the unit were functional.
“We have shortage in electricity transmission to Onitsha and it might be due to current nationwide shortfall in supply from the transmission lines.
“However, I am assuring our customers that it will soon improve,” he said.
The business manager assured the residents that their bills would be relatively lower for the period of short supply of electricity.
