Lokoja
The total power outage that enveloped Lokoja, the capital of kogi state, north central Nigeria; arising from the heavy rainfall in the town on Wednesday, remained unabated 48 hours after the rain.
Therefore,as residents of the town whose property were destroyed by rain begin repairs of their houses, they have also lamented the persistent power outage.
A correspondent of an online publication, Duaglobalnews, recall that the rain which began at about 7.30 p.m with storm, killed one person among other tales stories the rain on its trail.
Many residents who spoke with the online medium lamented the absence of electricity, adding that the development had caused them untold harship to them, both at the level of domestic and commercial considerations.
Mrs Agnes Alabi, a fresh fish seller in Lokoja, regretted that the blackout had her huge loss interms of her business, “as most of my fish have gone rotten due to lack of electricity to activate my regenerator to cool the fish.
“Though the current Coronavirus lockdown in the state has slowed relaxation at most of the relaxation spots, few operators who defied the ban on large crowd of people said they had been operating at loss.
“Nobody dare comes to my beer parlous again to ask for one form of beer or the other because there is no light to cool the drinks to attract patronage,” a beer parlous operator, who preferred vein identity said.
Mal. Sani Aminu, a father of family of six to Duaglobalnews that he had been on generator to generate electricity to check excessive heat in Lokoja.
“For the past 48 hours, my generator has been on but a huge cost to my pocket interms of buying fuel to keep life going in the absence of electricity,” he bemoaned.
Aminu called on Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) to expedite action in bringing back electricity to Lokoja.
Efforts by our correspondent to get the reaction of appropriate official of the company in Lokoja on the issue proved abortive.
However, an officer of the establishment,who pleaded for anonymity, told our correspondent that that the issue had been communicated to the headquarters of the organisation.
“Though the damage caused to electrical installations by the Tuesday rainfall in Lokoja is the high side interms of cost, we are believing that AEDC is on top of the situation with a view to returning light to Lokoja and it’s environs,”he said.
Duaglobalnews reports the devastating rain was the second in the town, this year.