The familiar cheers of children celebrating the return of electricity signalled the end of a two-week blackout in Damaturu and its adjourning areas. The power outage had left the community in darkness due to a faulty power supply.
At around 8:20 p.m., on Wednesday, October, 30, the streets of Damaturu metropolis were suddenly illuminated as the power was restored.
A nearby resident, Mohammed AbdulRahman, expressed his relief, saying, “Let’s hope the power is back for good, as we’ve been in darkness for almost two weeks.”
He added, “And let them know that we shouldn’t be charged for electricity this month. After being without power for so long, no one should expect us to pay.”
Mohammed continued, while urging the government to take necessary measures to prevent future vandalism and hoping that this would be the last time the North would experience such a disruptive outage.
The Damaturu resident praised the efforts of the Transmission Company of Nigeria for its determination in restoring power supply in the North and other parts of the country. He urged the management to take stringent measures to prevent any future vandalism.
Another resident, Bature Iman, who works as an electronics repairer in the state capital said he couldn’t believe his eyes as they blinked to the effect of the electricity supply yesterday night.
Bature said he lost thousands of both human hours and naira to the absence of electricity while it lasted.
“I hope this restored light will serve us for a while before TCN begins its usual rubbish style?
“I was surprised to see the bulb in my room light up at night when electricity was restored after almost three weeks.
I love so many man hours as I couldn’t work. I’m an electrician here, but I had to abandon the customers’ electrical appliances I was working to repair because there had been no power supply and new ones didn’t come in,” he said.
Arewa PUNCH asked him why he didn’t find an alternative electricity supply to carry out his work, and Bature said, “ Do you want me to die?” He queried.
“ yes, I have a generator, but I can not ever try to fuel it again. To fuel my five-litre generator will cost me over N6,000; from where will I get that type of money? I haven’t mentioned engine oil. That issue is a no-go area.
“We read it from your paper that the president summoned the minister and the PHCN people and ordered them to give us light in the North and they have complied. We just hope that the light they managed to give us yesterday is not a wuru-wuru light to deceive the president and our people?” He pleaded.
