At least 4200 households, residing in Iyiowa and Odekpe areas of Anambra State have been thrown into darkness for over 18 days.
This is a result of the 2nd Niger Bridge construction activities of Julius Berger PLC, along Atani road, which affected the underground cable powering the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, EEDC’s IYIOWA 11KV feeder.
Following the development which occurred on the 7th of February, 2020, the IYIOWA 11KV feeder has been out of supply.
This development was made known to newsmen by the Head of Communications, EEDC, Mr. Emeka Ezeh, on Wednesday.
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According to Ezeh, the construction company embarked on the excavation of the cable corridor without notifying EEDC to assist by granting outage or possibly deploying its cable locator equipment, to properly identify the location of the cable.
“Usually, before such a project is embarked on, the contractor is expected to engage EEDC to ensure safety precautionary measures are in place and to also provide technical assistance by assigning its staff familiar with the network, to ensure proper management of the electrical asset during excavation.
“This negligence by Julius Berger resulted in damaged and punctured EEDC cables by their heavy equipment.
“We have had other incidents in the recent past where their team or sub-contractors worked in areas within our cable corridor at the location without recourse to our organization, and also damaged our cables and assets”, Ezeh said.
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It was gathered that EEDC has officially written to the Management of Julius Berger PLC on this development, through its Commercial Manager, BridgeHead Yard, Ogbaru, but still awaiting their response.
The communities thrown into darkness were apologized to by EEDC.
“This forced outage has significantly resulted in a high loss of revenue to our organization, equally disrupted commercial activities and subjected our customers to avoidable inconveniences.
“We, therefore, use this medium to appeal for the understanding of our esteemed customers affected by this situation, while we continue to follow up with Julius Berger for a lasting solution to this issue.
“EEDC sincerely apologises for the discomfort this situation must have caused her esteemed customers,” he added.
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