Activities in government offices, health facilities and secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) have been grounded for days in Benin City, the Edo State capital, as a result of power outage.
The situation is as a result of the non-supply of gas to the Ossiomo Power Company.
The power firm supplies electricity to government buildings, street lights, some private homes, courts, the Edo State Industrial Hub, where several micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) operate, including the secretariat of Edo State Council of the NUJ.
There is apprehension at the NUJ press centre as the union leadership had put the bathroom and toilets under locks and keys, as it was out of water supply, while journalists scramble to charge their gadgets.
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Some of the operators at the Industrial Hub lamented the situation.
A dealer in frozen food, who simply gave his name as Johnson, said he had lost money running into millions of naira.
“We were forced to bury our frozen products that had gotten rotten because we depended on Ossiomo electricity to power our facilities,” he said.
A staff member of Ossiomo power, Engr Uwa lgiehon blamed the development on the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) Limited, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), over non supply of gas to them.
When contacted, an official of the NPDC, who was officially mandated to speak for the company, said, “I have been able to reach the engineer who is working to fix the problem and he assured me that the issue would be resolved before Sunday.”
