Youths barricade road over power outage in Kaduna

Youths of Kamanzo Community in Kaduna metropolis of Kaduna State on Monday protested over 10 months of power outage in the area.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the protesters barricaded the Ibrahim Yakowa Road, causing gridlock for over two hours.
Efforts by the police, led by the Divisional Police Officer for Sabo Area of the city, Olalekan Odumosun, to disperse the crowd proved abortive, as the youths, women and children refused to budge.
Suleimanu Haruna, who spoke on behalf of the community, said the area had been without power supply for 10 months.
Haruna said all efforts by the community to get the attention of the Kaduna Electric Distribution Company to remedy the situation were unsuccessful.
He explained that the company had removed the two transformers serving the community after repeated breakdown due to overloading.
He said: “This development (overloading) resulted to rationing of electricity supply in the area, while the transformers kept having problems until they finally packed up.
“The KEDCO officials have removed the transformers, with a promise to replace them.
“But this is more than 10 months ago and so far nothing has been done.
“We have written to KEDCO on several occasions with no positive response.
“We are tired of writing, which is why we came out on the street to draw the government’s attention to our plight.
“We cannot continue living in the dark.”
The District Head of Kamanzo, Malam Dan-Makama, confirmed the development and said he had personally written to KEDCO on the matter, but the effort had yielded no result.
Dan-Makama, however, appealed to the protesting youths to return to their homes to prevent the situation becoming violent.
He said: “I have a generator in my house, but I had to stop using it to identify with my people.
“This is because it is going to be unfair that I have electricity because I can afford it, while my people are living in the dark.”
The situation was later brought under control with the intervention of the military and other security personnel attached to the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company.
The security agencies appealed to the protesters for calm and promised to intervene.
When contacted, KEDCO’s Head of Media and Community Relations, Idris Muhammad, confirmed the power outage.
Muhammad said the community needed three transformers for immediate use.
He said: “We planned to provide five transformers to the community because it is growing very fast.
“So far, efforts are underway to provide three transformers before the end of the week.
“One is ready.
“The second one has no accessories yet for it to start working, while the third one that blew up is being repaired.
“In the event we fail to make them available before the end of the week, we will get back to the community to prevail on them to maintain the peace before the transformers are made available.”
The spokesperson, however, denied that the company was charging customers without electricity supply.
NAN.