The People of Umuohii Village in Oboama Autonomous Community, Ezinihitte Mbaise Local Government Area, Imo State have cried out over the alleged tampering with their electricity transformers by certain staff of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) from its Okpofe Unit in Mbaise.
South East Trust gathered that a certain EEDC field worker identified simply as Simeon had reportedly visited the village from the Okpofe Unit to cut the transformer fuse and put the entire village in a long period of darkness without anybody questioning him.
One of the youth leaders in the village, Iheukwumere Ibeh told our correspondent that the purported nonchalant attitude and impunity of certain EEDC workers at the Okpofe Unit has caused the villagers a whole lot of problems.
Ibeh said: “It’s very worrisome and pathetic. The latest removal of this fuse is the 8th time and each time something like this happens, it lasts weeks or months before it could be fixed”.
However, the current youth leader in Umuohii, Mr. Onyewuchi Anyanwu told South East Trust that the bone of contention between the youths and EEDC is that “They would flash the light and thereafter blackout would follow. At the end of the month, they will bring a bill of N500,000.”
The youth leader, however, noted that his visit to the Okpofe Unit to pay N200,000 as part of the huge debts and N10,000 reconnection fee might mean that EEDC would supply electricity to Umuohii this Christmas season.
However, Mr. Simeon claimed that the youth of Umuohii are fond of threatening the life of EEDC officials whenever they went there for official assignments.
In a chat with our correspondent, he said that the entire village owes more than N8million.
Simeon confirmed that since March this year, the villagers who are connected to the transformer at Umuohii Junction have not had electricity supply.
