Akwa Ibom State has been without power supply for two days now.
The blackout which began on Friday morning has forced business owners and residents to resort to power generators.
The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution (PHED) Company, which distributes power to the state, is yet to issue a statement on the power outage.
“It’s been 24 hours of darkness in Uyo and @PHEDconnect doesn’t have the decency to apologise and state why we’ve been kept in darkness,” Rose Akai, a former radio-talk show host, wrote on X, on Saturday.
“So for yesterday 20hrs daily light was not supplied as promised for the insane amount B and A customers are now being charged,” she added.
Continuing, she asked the country’s electricity regulator, the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) how customers would be compensated for the blackout.
“@NERCNG You haven’t stated in your circular what happens if there’s no power for a whole day. How would we be compensated for this? I need answers. How would DISCOs make up for this? You would not charge us this much and not keep your end of the deal. Never!” she wrote.
We are working to restore power
A staff member of the PHED, who did not want his name mentioned because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, blamed the outage on lack of power from the 132KVA transmission line which supplies power to the state.
“That line has been down since about 8 a.m., yesterday. That is where we get our supply from. The line feeds Itu, Uyo and some areas,” he said.
When asked if it would be restored soon, the staff member said the line “has been going off and on” and that the company was battling to restore it.
The power outage occurred two days after the announcement of a new tariff for electricity nationwide.
The Vice Chairperson of NERC, Musiliu Oseni, in a press briefing on Wednesday in Abuja, said the new tariff would only affect electricity customers in Band A.
Band A customers are those who enjoy at least 20 hours of electricity supply daily, according to NERC.
Mr Oseni said B and A customers represent 15 per cent of the population, but consume 40 per cent of the country’s electricity.
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