By Kelvin Ololo
Residents living in Akpanim Community of Calabar South Local Government Area in Cross River State, have lamented over 3 months lack of electricity and13 years abandoned road project
The community whose major populations are students of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) and the University of Cross River State (UNICROSS) with other households, expressed dismay while speaking to CrossRiverWatch. They narrated the impact of the situation on their standard of living.
Victor Stanley, a student of UNICAL said the situation has not been palatable for the past three months without electricity.
“It hasn’t been a smooth one, for about three months now, we have been struggling to work without light. As a student, light is one of the amenities we cannot do without; without it, we cannot read and attend to other needs that concern us. We have contributed ten thousand Naira, each compound, to get this light fixed but I don’t know why it’s still delayed.”
Miss Faith Atunka described the situation as terrible “As a student living at Akpanim Street, it has actually been a very terrible experience being without lights for the past three months. And as students, we need light to read, we need our phones to be on to get access to information from school and all. But unfortunately, we lack that because we have to go pay money, pay 300 naira to charge power banks, depending on the size of the power bank.”
Another student who pleaded anonymity said the blackout has placed them incommunicado with their parents and loved ones as they can’t charge their phones. The student said it has compounded the harsh economic reality in the country.
A shop owner, Mrs Beatrice Okon lamented the impact it has had on her business.
Similarly, on the abandoned road project in the area, a resident identified only as Daniel said “Since I relocated to this community about six years now, my car hasn’t entered my compound, not that there is no gate. We park outside because the road is not motorable to drive into the compound.”
In bid to engage community leaders on the cause of the blackout, CrossRiverWatch was directed to one Mr. Orok Sandy Inameti, a Stakeholder and Head of Committee in charge of light matters in the community.
Mr. Orok while explaining the circumstances behind the blackout, traced the fault to overloaded transformer which he said the old transformer the community is using feeds about 8 adjoining streets including eight developed estates and the community has being in talks with the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) to refurbish the old transformer and fixed the light.
“We are not happy about it, we have the State Electrification Agency(SEA). They should come to our aid and provide one or two transformers to the community. That is their sole responsibility, the only thing we expect of the government is for them to do the right thing. Provide roads. Of course you can see this road now since December 1, 2012 the drainage was built and abandoned. The governments are not sensitive to the plight of the people in this community.
“It has been a recurring situation whenever there is a problem with light. We as a community, we task ourselves. Since we have students, you know the area is a densely populated area, we have so many students here, such that they need light more than anything. And not just students alone, the world has gone digital.
“We have initiated NEPA. In fact, we have a direct interface with NEPA. When we have the interface with NEPA, they assured us of coming to refurbish the transformer. Because of the development in the community, if you go down these other streets, the street opposite here, Eastern Way, we have about eight existing estates built by individuals. So all of them are feeding from the same transformer here. So our transformer here has just become a mother who has given birth to many children. And such a mother of which you know is not that physically strong to carry on with the little children again.”
He pleaded that “government on their own should not fail as a government. We have worked for the government. We have done everything.We are so civil to an extent that we do everything humanly possible to ensure we keep the government running. But the government has not replicated that same gesture to us.”
Effort to get the responses of the Calabar Regional Public Relations Officer of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) on the matter proved abortive, as he was not on seat at the time of this report.
In the Akpanim community, there are about five phone charging points centers, and the cost of charging of devices varies. Charging of a power bank is N300 to N400, phone is N200 to N300, laptops N200 and torchlight N100.
The streets from Eastern Way down to Akpanim connecting other adjoined lanes look mouldy with patches of potholes due to the rainy season.
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