Activities in government offices, health facilities, the Nigeria Union Journalists complex, and others have been grounded for several days in Benin as a result of a power outage.
Investigations showed that the power outage was a result of the non-supply of gas to the Ossiomo Power Company which supplies electricity to government buildings, street lights, some private homes, courts, the Edo State Industrial Hub where several micro, small, and medium enterprises operate.
Some of the operators in the industrial hub lamented their plight to journalists as they said they had lost a fortune because of the blackout which entered its fourth day on Friday.
It was gathered that surgeries had been stopped at the Edo State government-owned health facilities like primary health centres in the state capital, the Edo State Specialist Hospital and others to avoid deaths.
There was anxiety at the NUJ press centre which led to the leadership locking all bathrooms and toilets in the complex because of lack of water.
Journalists were helpless as their phones and laptops were out of power while some of them trooped to a nearby hotel to power their tools and send their reports.Related News
A dealer in frozen food at the Industrial hub, Simon Idiyen, said, “I have lost so much running into millions of naira. We were forced to bury our frozen products that had become unfrozen and were rotting away because we depended on this Ossiomo light.”
An employee of Osiomo Power who refused to be identified blamed the gas supplier, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited, a subsidiary of the NNPCL.
He said, “We are not suspecting sabotage but the situation is that we have different oil mining licences in this country supplying gas. Right now, the biggest one is OML 34 in Oben operated by Seplat. The one at Ologbo is handled by the NPDC and management is the challenge at Ologbo.
“There was a challenge in one of our substations and the NPDC brought archaic materials that put everybody at risk and we had to buy the equipment which is not our role. The blackout has gone on for days and if you ask them, they won’t tell you what the problem is, but it has to do with competence.”
At the Benin City headquarters of the NPDC, a senior official in the operations department said he could not speak officially for the company, adding, “I have been able to reach the engineer who is working to fix the problem and he assured me the issue will be resolved before Sunday.”
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