Protesters block highway over poor power supply

Electricity consumers in Sapele, Delta, on Friday blocked the Sapele axis of the Benin/Warri highway to protest epileptic power supply in the area.

The protesters, comprising youths, men and women, demanded for at least 12-hour power supply from the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) and the stoppage of estimated billing.

The protesters, in their hundreds, carried placards chanting war songs as they barricaded the road.

They blocked both sides of the busy highway, disrupting vehicular movement.

One of the conveners of the protest, Mr Solomon Abeke, decried the attitude of the electricity company.

“What we are demanding is an improvement in electricity supply.

“Just imagine, they give us only three hours light every day. We have two generating stations and a transmission station here in Sapele; yet we live in perpetual darkness,” he said.

Also, Mike Egbune, a lawyer, described the action of the BEDC as oppressive, adding that they embarked on the protest to draw the attention of the Federal Government to their plight.

“Companies are closing down. Small-scale businesses are folding up; imagine, twice now we have protested and passed our demands to them. They keep promising without doing anything.

“They say we owe over N2 billion; they want us to pay for darkness?” Egbune asked.

He urged the electricity company to stop giving the people what he called “estimated and crazy bills”.

Efforts to get the reaction of the Public Affairs Manager of BEDC were unsuccessful.