Hon. Iduma Igariwey is the lawmaker representing Afikpo North/South Federal constituency of Ebonyi state, at the Green Chambers of the National Assembly, Abuja. In this interview with AMARACHUKWU EGWUAGHA in Abakaliki, he explains why he sued Enugu Electricity Distributing Company (EEDC) to court.
Excerpts
Cause of the power outage in Afikpo city and what is being done to restore power to the constituency.
As I speak now, I and EEDC are in court. The case has suffered setback because the judge was on election duty in Port-Harcourt. Because at a time, I even had to sue them for N100milion for certain deprivations I have suffered from them. I want our people to know that electricity is privatised, it was privatised in 2005. So, the issue of power in Nigeria has been privatised. The first people to hold responsible for power problems are the Distribution Companies (DISCOs). They are the distribution agencies. In this our case, the company we must ask questions about this power of a thing is the EEDC. I took up their issue at the floor of parliament through a petition that was written against them and they have been invited for more than ten times, I have sponsored those trips privately for them to come and explain a whole lot of things. It is now very clear to everybody that EEDC which was given the mandate to be supplying power to Afikpo people and entire south east are not up to their job. The commonest example is three days ago when heavy windstorm occurred. In that windstorm many electricity poles fell down; you will see a lot of them when you are going to Mgbom, Uwnanna. Many poles are lying on the ground as we speak and nothing has been done by EEDC to carry them up. No responsible organisation or even individual will allow its things scattered on the ground without putting them in order. That thing is a fundamental testimonial of the capacity or lack of it of the power service providers in the South East, they are very inefficient. We blame them, we also blame the federal government because it is allowing them to hold the licences. I have never seen EEDC mounting electricity poles let alone doing wiring to give light to people.
As we are now, Ukpa people have approached me and I gave them electricity transformer, Mgbom people have done the same thing and I also gave them a transformer. I equally gave transformer to Ndibe people, Poperi people of Amasiri. I am not supposed to be doing this in the contest of a privatised public going or concern. People should not be buying wires to bring power into their houses, people shouldn’t be buying poles or bothering their heads on what to do. So, the long and short of it is that the service provider is not a capable service provider, it is not providing the service. They said people don’t pay their electricity bills but you have to earn that revenue, you have to provide that service first. This is why I dragged them to court. They disconnected light in my area and I told you you have not provided a service and you are disconnecting lights. There is a statutory provision that says you can’t cut people’s light like that without going through a process; you must ask the person why he/she don’t pay electricity bills. It must be discussed before you disconnect light but EEDC don’t do this and it was on the basis of this that I took them to court. Since that time, I have been keeping all the receipts from the diesel I buy to power my generating plant.
Having made that observation, I want to also make it very clear that the situation will change soon. The only thing is that light or power is like the oxygen we need; welders need light, panel beaters need light, other business operators also need light. It is after the revenue generation, the revenue profile, the services that is being provided here. So, this is why I will urge our people to exercise a little more patience. Something is being done about this. It has been very long we started talking about light, but government is now listening to us. The Amasiri power station which I laid the foundation, the moment it is completed, the issue of power or no power in Afikpo will be a thing of the past because light will come directly from Enugu. This one that was supplied from Abakaliki, over the years has been overcome by developments around it; more people demanding power. So, that system has passed and this is why a power station that will supply power directly from major source down to Afikpo is being constructed. If it gets to Afikpo, it will get to Edda, it will continue the journey to Ohaozara, Ivo and the rest of them. So, the station is being constructed with a complimentary one that is being built in Ezza South. My work is to ensure that the work moves on and I can assure you without going into more details that I am trying a lot in that Amasiri power station project. Every year, money is given to the people constructing the station for the project. We have ensured that no year passes without money released for the project through our contributions. So, the darkness in Afikpo has expiring date and hopefully, it will come very soon. You know I can only act within the issues I know about. There was a time the youth of Afikpo wrote petitions about power situation in Afikpo and brought them to me. The petition was up to one thousand and they were all signed. It was on the basis of that that I moved that petition on the floor and the Committee on Public Petitions started inviting EEDC. So, I want people to know that they can write petitions to me for it so that I can move them to the floor of House of Representatives.
On the Federal Maritime School cited at Awgu in Enugu state where there is no water, instead of Afikpo
You talked about Federal Maritime School which was hijacked from this place to Awgu, Enugu state. I will say that you are very far, you have gone even too far. In our own Ebonyi state, the Nigerian Navy in their own wisdom is planning to site a Navy school in Afikpo because of the way armed robbers were entering Afikpo through Ndibe beach and robbed banks and the town. I am even contributing even to the plan to site the navy school in this area to prevent further occurrences. So, I wrote a letter requesting the then Chief of Naval Staff and my own cousin who just retired as a Rear Admiral assisted me and we took the letter to that then Chief of Naval Staff. I told him before submitting the letter that hoodlums, kidnappers and militants were entering our place through Cross River and you are from Cross River state. So, let us site this Navy school in this our area so that it can be protecting us and he collected the letter from me and kept. Now, my cousin has retired and part of why a Navy Secondary School was being considered in this Afikpo was because of this my cousin. Where this institution is supposed to be cited and it will be appropriate is this Afikpo because of beaches around it. But as we speak today, there are serious efforts to take it to Uburu Ohaozara local government area of the state where there is no single beach or river and I have all the evidence but we will continue to resist it.
Egeburu /Evuma/New Site road is very strategic to Afikpo and it is in a deplorable state and non-motorable. What are you doing about it?
Egeburu is in my mind. Not long ago, my good friend Monday Eluu came and greeted me for constructing motorised borehole for Egeburu people. There are things that make projects especially roads interesting. One of them is how useful it will be to the people. There are some roads in my mind in Afikpo which if I were the Governor, I will construct or reconstruct them. Mater hospital road is so strategic to the people of Ehugbo, Mater/New Site road is very important but an individual cannot take on such gigantic project. The Egeburu road is a road I have in mind, it is very important because when it is constructed, it will be very easy for one to go to Mater hospital through Amangballa road that connects that Egeburu road. We will include the road in our programmes.
