Osun residents, business owners decry power outage caused by labour strike

Residents and business owners in Osogbo, Osun, on Tuesday, decried the power cut nationwide by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) following the industrial action declared by organised labour.

The residents and businesses owners, who spoke to our correspondent on Tuesday, said that they had to resort to generators and alternative energy to run their businesses.

Mr Adetunji Adewale, a barber, said that his salon since Monday has been running on generator.

Adewale said he had been operating almost at a loss since commencement of the strike, and the money spent on fueling the generator had taken all his profit.

“We are used to having constant electricity supply in Osogbo and I hardly have any need to use the generator.

“But because of the strike, I had to service my generator and fùel it.

I have not used it in a long while before yesterday.

“I have spent almost N10,000 on the generator alone and I didn’t even have much customers yesterday.

“This means that I have not really made the money I spent on powering my shop.” he said.

Adewale, who described electricity as very essential to his type of business, therefore, appealed to labour leaders and government to resolve their differences as soon as possible “so that electricity can be restored”.

Also, Mr Kazim Adeoye, a resident and a real estate agent, said the battery of his two phones were already dead, because there was no electricity to power them since Monday.

Adeoye said he and his family also had to endure heat throughout the night, as there was no way to turn on the fan without electricity.

“As I speak to you now, I am looking for where I can charge my phones. I am a real estate agent and I transact most of my business on my phones.

“Only God knows the number of people that would have been trying to reach me now, since my phones were off.

“I just pray that the NLC and Federal Government resolve their differences today for TCN to restore the lights.

“The absence of electricity is just adding more pains to what we are already going through in this country,” he said.

Similarly, Mrs Felicia Ogungbemi, a vendor of frozen food, said she has been apprehensive due to the power outage.

According to her, the apprehension stems from the fact that she is a vendor of frozen poultry and fish

Ogungbemi said that if power was not restored in the next 24 hours, all the frozen items in her freezers would get spoilt.

The frozen food vendor explained that because she was on band A and has had constant electricity for the past two months, there conse has not seen the need to repair her broken down generator.

Ogungbemi, therefore, appealed to the Labour Unions and the Federal Governmnet to quickly resolve the issue of national minimum wage “so that Nigerians can enjoy power supply”.