The residents of Ughiole and Ubiane communities in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State have petitioned the House of Representatives over power outages in their areas for nine months.
The petition, sent through to the Chairman, House Committee on Public Petitions, Esosa Iyawe, was signed by Adamu Deco Suleman and made available to journalists in Benin.
He said the blackout was caused by vandalism of the step-down infrastructure that powered over five transformers.
Suleman said the affected communities were left to endure the hardship of living without electricity for nine months as neither the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) nor the state government’s intervention was forthcoming.
He said the communities contributed funds for the repair or replacement of the damaged infrastructure but that what was raised fell short of the amount needed due to inflation and fluctuating exchange rates.
He, therefore, called on the House Committee on Public Petitions to compel BEDC to fix the electricity problem in the communities, which hosted over 20,000 residents and numerous businesses.
