Angered by the incessant power outage and continued estimated bills for light not consumed, residents of Mile 1 and 2, Diobu, Port Harcourt have asked officials of Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution (PHED) to steer clear of the area.
The residents dished out the ‘stay away’ order Friday when the Electricity people as usual went for mass disconnection of houses yet to pay their bills.
Thinking it was business as usual, the PHED officials were rather attacked by the angry mob and narrowly escaped lynching along Azikiwe/Ojoto Street of Mile 2 area of Diobu.
According to the residents, they only have light when the PHED officials want to share bills for payment after which they are thrown into endless darkness until next bill sharing time.
Meetings between the two parties since then have reportedly not yielded any positive result.
Investigation also revealed that the supply of prepaid meters which ought to be a solution to the problem was not also possible. The facilities that are meant to be given out free of charge is said to cost about N40,000 for single phase and 70,000 for two to three phases.
When our reporter sent a text message to John Onyi, Corporate Communication Manager of PHED in South-South over the development he replied promising to get back to our reporter but was yet to do so at time of filing this story.
Whyte Nsofor, spokesperson of the coalition of streets that barred PHED from carrying out any activity in the affected areas insisted that the PHED should issue prepaid meters to all the affected streets so that the residents in the area can pay for what they are actually consuming.
He stated the activities of PHED in the area will remain on hold until all their demands are met.
Some of the streets affected include Adelabu, Abel Jumbo, Ojoto, Obaziolu, amongst others in Mile 1 and Mile 2 Diobu.
