Barely few days after President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in as president of Nigeria, there was sudden improvement in power supply to various parts of Benin City and its environs. Many residents of the city expressed joy over the improvement without asking for the reasons behind apart from the slogan that “it was all part of the change”.

“Buhari has not even made any policy statement or his intentions about the power sector and suddenly we are now seeing light almost everyday, the fear of Buhari is the beginning of wisdom”, a resident once told The Guardian shortly after the improvement.

Some parts of Ekenwan Road, Okhoro, Irhiri, Stadium Road and others enjoyed near uninterrupted power supply. But suddenly, there was a plunge and rationing became the order of the day. It is either six hours on or six hours off or three hours on and three hours off as the case may be.
 
But as at today, the rationing is not even being enjoyed by consumers. Patrick Ochoga who stays in Irhiri lamented to that the three hours power supply in his areas is not being met.

“It has been terrible now, be sure that there would not be light in the three hours you are not supposed to have but what is worrisome is that you are not also sure of getting light within the three hours you are supposed to get. So at times we end up having light less than three hours in 24 hours”

Jethro Ibileke who resides in Okhoro area said light has been fair in his area same for Wilson Apilo in Country Home area of Ugbor off Sapele Road. He said they enjoy the three hours power supply in the area.
 

Apparently frustrated by the ugly trend, hundreds of residents in Benin city, the Edo state capital few days ago disrupted official activities at the Benin Head office of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) for several hours over what they described as horrific and epileptic power supply to their communities. The visibly angry youths with some publicly smoking cannabis barricaded all entry point to the Headquarter of the BEDC to press home their demand for uninterrupted power supply to the communities which they alleged BEDC has denied them for two months.


The protesters were prepared for a long stay in the place as they blocked the two gates with makeshift fire points where they cooked rice on one gate and yam in the other which they delightedly served themselves vowing not to leave the place until management of the company answered their request which also included that they should be returned to the GRA Feeder with guarantee of more light.   

One of the protesters a legal practitioner Bar. Destiny Eguavoen said the incessant power outage in the affected communities which include Ogbe- Ibuya, Aerodrome Close,Trade-fair, Evbotubu and Ugbiyoko all in Oredo Local Council is worrisome. He decried a situation where people living in the city would stay without electricity supply for over two months.

  
“The light situation is so bad that we hardly get power supply for five minutes a day. We used to have good supply of power at least 16 hours daily until BEDC for no reason disconnect us from the Government Reservation Area (GRA) Feeder which we have been using and added our communities to another feeder, that has continuously affected supply of electricity to our areas.

“We are against the transfer of our area from the Government Reservation Area (GRA) Feeder to another. We want them to return us back to the Government Reservation Area (GRA) Feeder. Our power supply was satisfactory with supply from Government Reservation Area (GRA) Feeder and not this new feeder in Evbotubu, which we hardly get supply from in the last three years,” Eguavoen said.

  
Another protester, Mr Curtis Obaghiagbon, said members of the communities have depended on generators to power their homes.
 
“There are 2688 houses in these communities and they all paid fixed charges. You can imagine how much they are making from us every month.

“I came from Austria where I am based last week. Ever since I arrived, I’ve been buying petrol to run my generator every day. If I can afford it, not everybody can afford it. This is not sustainable. It has to stop.”

Armed policemen were on ground to check breakdown of law and order.  When contacted, BEDC Corporate Affairs Manager, Curtis Nwadei said the affected communities were indebted to the company to the tune of N28,140,962,26 and their clamour for return to the  Government Reservation Area (GRA) Feeder was unrealistic as the BEDC was not responsible for the relocation of the communities from the  Government Reservation Area (GRA) Feeder which he said happened long before BEDC bought the company from the defunct PHCN. 
 

Speaking on the drop in power supply, Nwadei said Distribution Companies (DISCOs) like theirs, the BEDC which controls four states of Edo, Delta, Ondo and Ekiti States do not have control over the amount and volume of power they get and that the rely on what is generated.

“In the last two years we the BEDC is entitled to nine per cent of whatever is generated from the national grid. So it is what we get that we also give to our customers. We try as much as possible to spread it as much as we can that is why you see some people have 18 hours, 9 hours and 6 hours as the case may be.