IN less than a week after the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) restored power to a section of oil and gas-rich Warri and environs, commercial activities have, again, nosedived and hopes dashed.
It will be recalled that for the better part of January and February, residents of Warri and its environs suffered untold hardships due to a reported faulty 1,3,6 PTI Transformer which feeds Warri and environs.
Checks at the weekend revealed that the lack of electricity in the area is beginning to take a more devastating toll on commercial activities as well as the general health and well-being of residents.
Although the perennial fuel scarcity that held the country down for the past four months is beginning to subside in the state, criminality seems to be on the rise following the blackout.
Among residents, it was also observed that gradual impatience and frustration are beginning to set in and might snap unless the situation is urgently addressed by the BEDC.
Residents, who eke a living from micro businesses such as ice block making/sale, business centres, cold rooms and sachet water among others, are worst hit.
Besides, the residents are complaining of rashes and other heat-related infections unless a swift action is taken to restore electricity to the area.
A secondary school student, Great Tejiro, who spoke in pidgin, expressed his dissatisfaction with the situation.
“Like the way this light issue be, we dey sleep for heat; we dey pay money dey charge phone. E just be as if the government dey use punish us. May God punish them, too,” he yelled.
Mrs Portia Atubi, a businesswoman, said her children had developed rashes all over their bodies and feared a graver health hazard might erupt.
She said: “Ha!!! Dey won kill people nah! Heat o; hear no dey lat us rest. All my body fill with krokro. Sometimes sef, because of the heat for midnight, we go sit down for outside from around 2 to 3:00 a.m. when my body Dion cool small, a go enter house. The only thing wey we go do na to pray make God touch BEDC people mind so that they bring light for us.”
Miss Bukky Atubi, a trader, who lives in Agbassa, could only pay: “We no know wetin we do them oooo but we dey pray make God touch their mind make dem give us light.”
On her part, Mrs Ese Okotie, another trader, averred that “The light issue dey affect me for business because we no get cold drinks and cold pure water to sell. Heat dey everywhere.
“With light, we can do everything as light no dey so, I no dey fit iron my children uniform again e com dey make them dey look rough way dem dey go school.
“The thing dey affect we traders well well in the sense that people wey dey produce cellophane no dey fit produce again e com make cellophane dear like say tomorrow no dey.”
A civil servant, Mr Sunny Chigonti, threatened a protest if nothing is done urgently.
“The light dey affect me because we can’t do without light. We are not happy as there’s no light, I feel very bad in the fact that for the past two to three weeks now, there’s is no light. We have to protest oooo,” he warned.
To Mrs Happy Jonathan, a rice vendor, the heat at night in homes could be likened to a furnace.
“The light issue don tire me ooo; inside house dey hot like say we dey hellfire. Hope government dey hear me oooo WE NEED LIGHT OOOO,” she pleaded.
Even dry cleaners have gradually gone out of business as Mr Ighoyohwo Odjegba, a dry cleaner, who suggested a revolution as the only solution, disclosed that “The light issue is not a two-week occurrence, it has been a repeated decimal.
“Left for me, I would like a revolution to take place in this country. I’m angry because I spend money to buy fuel to do my laundry work and by the end of the day, I don’t even see my profit.
“The thing that pains me most is that BEDC will still come to your door post to ask for the light bill at the end of the month when we don’t even see the light not to talk of using it.
“The government is not even doing anything about it. If I have the opportunity to park out of this country, I will do it cause I’m so fed up with this country, WE NEED LIGHT!!!!!!!!!” he reiterated.
A businessman, Mr Onoriode Igbigbi, expressed displeasure at the perennial blackout in Warri and environs.
Speaking in pidgin, Igbigbi said: “There’s nothing to say about this light issue if you look at it all businesses are zero.
“Like my friend who is doing dry cleaning work, there’s no way he can iron clothes that he has washed except with generator and fuel is very cost: so, tell me how can such a person make a profit from what he is doing? In fact, I am tired of this country.
“If you go to Ghana, you’ll not experience anything like power failure and I heard that it’s Nigeria that supplies them light. Imagine we are supplying another country light when we don’t even have light!
“Later, we will call ourselves giant of Africa. Nigeria is just like a village. Even in some villages, there is light but when it comes to Nigeria, everything is Zero.
“The thing that pains me most is that the government is not doing anything about it. Because of this light issue, pure water selling business is gradually crumbling because there’s no light to keep the water chilled and there’s heat everywhere; what everybody needs is something cold but how do we get it when there’s no light?”
Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer of BEDC in Warri, simply identified as Mrs Ogaga, while on phone, said “we’re trying our best to resolve the fault. The problem is the transmission. The 1,3,6 PTI Transformer that is feeding Warri and environs is having a problem. They’re working on it.”