A group of 20 individuals in Di-nyanvoh community of Jalingo, the capital of Taraba State, has sued the Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC), demanding N200 million compensation for damages allegedly caused by high electric voltage.
The plaintiffs claim that the excessive current, which occurred last year, resulted in massive destruction of their properties, including electrical appliances and household items.
According to the group, the incident left many of them struggling to replace their damaged belongings.
The case, now before the High Court, in Jalingo, seeks to hold the utility accountable for what the plaintiffs described as negligence in maintaining a stable power supply.
They alleged that the company failed to act swiftly to rectify the situation, leading to significant financial losses.
It would be recalled that the October 2023 occurrence also led to the electrocution of four family members.
The matter, which was mentioned yesterday, was observed to have been adjourned till January.
Speaking with The Guardian, counsel to the plaintiffs, G T. Leave, confirmed a N200 million demand by his clients.
IN a related development, the President-elect of the Nigerian Academy of Science, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Prof Abubakar Sambo, has canvassed regionalisation of the national grid as a solution to the frequent outage in the country.
The Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Engineering and Environmental Designs, while delivering the 12th convocation lecture of Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, titled: “The Optimum Utilisation of Nigeria’s Energy Resources for the Sustainable Growth and Development of Nigeria” yesterday, stated that the recent blackout in 17 states, caused by damage of transmission towers by bandits, should not be allowed to happen in the future.
As a step towards this, Sambo suggested that states should work towards establishing their electricity markets as enunciated by the Electricity Act 2023.
He said: “All state grids can operate independently such that faults in one state will not affect the others.”
According to him, dispatchable power plants should also be available in states at strategic points along the national grid, since renewable energy power plants and small modular reactors are effective dispatchable power plants.
“The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), which TCN says is only 70 per cent completed, and which enables real-time monitoring and control of the grid, allowing operators to detect faults, manage loads effectively and respond to issues swiftly, should be completed as quickly as possible,” he added.
