Abudu – Residents of Abudu and adjoining communities in Orhionmwon local government area of Edo state have continued to express disappointment over lack of electricity, as they rely heavily on fuel (gasoline) to power their generating sets.

The residents, some of who are business owners lamented that their dependent on generator for power has adversely affected their turnover, even as others maintained they pay to charge their rechargable gadgets.

“for more than 4 years now, we don’t have light here (Abudu); just generator everywhere you go. We keep buying fuel everyday, otherwise you can’t do anything. And it’s telling on your profit.

“many have close shop; many have relocated to other areas. Those who don’t rely on electricity to run their business don’t care as long as they have somewhere they can pay to charge their phones, and MP3 players”, a POS operator at Abudu who do not want her name mentioned in print told The Nigerian Observer

A visit to some mobile phones charging outlets further revealed that residents pay as high as N100 daily to charge their phones, torchlights, powerbanks, radio and music players, as some offices that once relied on desktop computers for operation have abandoned them for laptops that can be charged like other portable gadgets.

According to the residents, restoration of electricity would boost socio-economic activities in area, especially as host of the multi-million naira ultra-modern College of Education.

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They appealed to Governor Godwin Obaseki to wade on the contractors handling electricity project in the area to mobilize men and materials to site for its completion.

“The governor should consider us in Orhionmwon; we’ve suffered enough. Or for how long are we going to keep waiting for light to come?”, a commercial motorcyclist at Oligie-Igbanke queried

Edo State Oil and Gas Producing Areas Development Commission (EDSOGPADEC) had recently installed 2.5MV/3311VA transformers at Oghada, to boost power supply in Abudu, Oza, Oghada, Evbuobanosa, Iru, Uvbe, Ofien, Ugbeze, Ugoneki, Ago-Ogbeide, among other benefitting communities.

Odionwere of Abudu, Pa Mathew Ehioghae had through the secretary, Mr Ogbeiwi Osili maintained that the benefiting communities are still expecting power to be restored after the installation, stressing they have made frantic effort to address the problem.

He disclosed that arrangement with the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) have reached advanced stage for powering of some “serviceable” transformers at Abudu.