Kaduna Youths Stage Protest Over Power Outage

Angered youths of Kamanzo Community in Kaduna state have staged a protest over power outage in the area.

The protesters barricaded the Ibrahim Yakowa Road on Monday, January 5, causing gridlock for over two hours.

Speaking on behalf of the community, Suleimanu Haruna complained that the area had been without power supply for about 10 months.

Haruna said that the resident of the area used all efforts to attract the attention of the Kaduna Electric Distribution Company (KEDCO) to the problem.

“This development (overloading) resulted to rationing of electricity supply in the area, while the transformers kept having problems until they finally packed up.

“The KEDCO officials have removed the transformers, with a promise to replace them; but this is more than 10 months ago and so far, nothing has been done.

We have written to KEDCO on several occasions with no positive response. We are tired of writing; which is why we came out on the street to draw the government’s attention to our plight. We cannot continue living in the dark,’’ the spokesman said.

Confirming the development, Malam Dan-Makama, the district head of Kamanzo, said that he had personally written to KEDCO on the matter, but the effort had yielded no result. However, he called on the protesters to return to their homes to prevent the situation becoming violent.

“I have a generator in my house, but I had to stop using it to identify with my people. This is because it is going to be unfair that I have electricity because I can afford it, while my people are living in the dark,’’ he said.

The situation was later brought under control with the intervention of the military and other security personnel.

Speaking with journalists, Idris Muhammad, the head of media and community relation in KEDCOM, confirmed the power outage and added that the community needed three transformers for immediate use.

“We planned to provide five transformers to the community because it is growing very fast. So far, efforts are underway to provide three transformers before the end of the week.

“One is ready; the second one has no accessories yet for it to start working; while the third one that blew up is being repaired.

“In the event we fail to make them available before the end of the week, we will get back to the community, to prevail on them to maintain peace, before the transformers are made available,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hajiya Amina Mohammed, the minister of environment, has stated that the federal government is planning to develop about 13,000 megawatts (13 gigawatts) of off-grid electricity from solar energy.

The minister noted that the solar power would be developed in order to “deliver energy to the poorest communities in a cheaper and healthier manner with less emission.”