Residents of the ancient city of Daura on Wednesday called on the Katsina State Government to urgently intervene to end the persistent power outage affecting the town and its environs.
The residents made the call a week after the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Faruk Umar, summoned the PHCN Area Manager, Alhaji Ibrahim Dayyabu, over the situation.
A cross section of the residents who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Daura lamented that the area had remained in darkness for more than three weeks.
The situation, they said, had adversely affected socio-economic activities of the people.
They urged the state government to complete work on the Daura electricity sub-station, which was abandoned by the Federal Government for decades.
“The entire Daura emirate has not been enjoying stable electricity supply for years, hence the need for the state government and the PHCN to do something to address the situation.
“For instance, for the past one month we do not have electricity in our houses and no explanation was made by the PHCN over the situation, yet they send bills and threaten us with disconnection,” Alhaji Abdulfatah Mahmud, a resident said.
The Dan’Madamin Daura, Alhaji Abdulrahaman Dan’Malam, also appealed to the government and the PHCN to address the problem in order to reduce the suffering of people in the area.
NAN observed that some of the residents now rely on power generating sets for their domestic electricity needs and businesses, while others were forced to close down their businesses.
It was also observed that the incessant power failure had forced many operators of grinding machines in the town to operate with gasoline, thereby hiking the cost of grinding a measure of grain from N10 to N30.
Reacting to the development, the PHCN Manager in Daura, Alhaji Ibrahim Dayyabu, attributed the problem to the breakdown of some electricity transformers.
“Two transformers in Daura metropolis have problems, but we are working round the clock to repair them so as restore normal supply of electricity to the town.
“I have briefed the Emir of Daura on the situation.'' ?
???????????????
??????????????