Abuja residents lament prolonged blackout, landlords plan protest

Residents of parts of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, have lamented days of power outages, saying the situation has disrupted businesses, water supply and other daily activities.

A resident of Kubwa, Fatima Muhammad, told DAILY POST that the blackout had affected her household and baking business.

She said she had run out of water because she could not power her pumping machine, while some of her baked products had spoilt due to the lack of electricity.

Muhammad said the outage had caused her financial losses and made it difficult to carry out her daily activities.

Other residents have also taken to social media to express frustration over the prolonged power interruption and the response of electricity distribution authorities.

A user on X, Peace Kanu PIAK, said her area in Dutse had been without electricity for two days before she came across an update on the situation.

“Thank you for the information. However, be informed that my area, Dutse, has not had electricity for the past two days, and we just got your update here. Please, TCN technical team should accelerate the restoration process,” she wrote.

Another user, Christian, criticised the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), saying residents had endured five days without power.

“If your team put the same energy into being proactive and ensuring our complaints are resolved as you do into updating us, this five-day absence of light would have been sorted out,” the user said.

A user identified as Nazeerah said residents of Area 8, Garki, had been without electricity for three weeks.

“We haven’t had electricity for three weeks now. Very, very unfair and overwhelming,” she wrote.

Another user, BLVCKK, complained that customers paying for Band A electricity were not receiving a consistent power supply.

“We pay for B and A, and you guys are stylishly giving us one day in, one day out. It is becoming a pattern. I believe this isn’t faults anymore, but rationing,” the user said.

Dane Doug, another user on X, also expressed frustration over the blackout.

“Freezers are freezing, but there is no light across all the major areas of the FCT,” the user wrote.

Similarly, Mark Itsibor lamented the prolonged outage in Bwari, the Nigerian Law School area, Ushafa, Bmuko and Dutse, accusing the electricity authorities of failing to address the situation.

“What kind of hell have you subjected most Abuja residents to in the last one week? Why are you so careless? There has been no light in Bwari, Law School, Ushafa, Bmuko and the entire Dutse for days,” he said.

DAILY POST gathered that landlords’ associations in Ushafa, Dutse and Kubwa are planning a protest for Monday if the power situation remains unchanged.

Meanwhile, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), in a statement on Wednesday, announced a planned interruption of electricity supply in parts of Abuja to enable it to carry out maintenance at its 132/33kV Kubwa Substation.

“Consequently, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) will be unable to offtake electricity supply to customers in Kubwa, Bwari, Army Resettlement, parts of Dutse Alhaji and adjoining areas during the maintenance period,” TCN said.

Also, AEDC on Friday informed customers in parts of the FCT that the disruption they were experiencing was caused by a technical fault on TCN’s 330kV Shiroro-Katampe transmission line.

In a notice posted on its X handle, the distribution company listed Garki, parts of Apo, Asokoro, Wuse Zones 1 and 2, Wuye, Jabi, Utako, Jahi, Life Camp, Gwarinpa, Kubwa, Dawaki, Dutse, Dei-Dei, Suleja and adjoining areas among the affected locations.

AEDC said TCN’s technical team was working to fix the fault and restore stability to the national grid.

The company assured customers that electricity supply would be restored to all affected areas once the transmission line was cleared.

The development comes weeks after the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, said some electricity consumers had asked him to slow down following improvements in power supply.

Speaking at the commissioning of a three-megawatt solar hybrid power project at the University of Abuja in September, Tegbe said some areas that previously went without electricity for months were now receiving up to 18 hours of supply.

“Places that didn’t have light at all for three months are now having 18 hours of light. Some areas called me to say, look, I should slow down, that everything in their freezer is freezing,” he said.

He responded that freezers were designed to keep food frozen.

“That is what a freezer is meant to do. Let it freeze the food that needs to be frozen,” he added.