Bayelsa Residents Gloan Over Prolong Black-out

Residents of Yenagoa the Bayelsa state capital and environs have continued to experience a total blackout for two weeks running.

This is due to an auto crash where a car collided into a high-tension line around the Opolo axis of Yenagoa causing huge damage to the electricity supply.

Speaking to Journalists during an on the spot assessment tour by the commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Mr. AYIBAINA DUBA in accompany of his Power counterpart, Tonye Ebitei, said the essence of going for the assessment tour was to intimate Bayelsans on the situation of power outage in the state.

According to Duba, the information they gathered was that, there was an accident around Opolo area within the state capital that involved a vehicle that caused a considerable damage to the sub-station in Gbanran.

“We are here, we have seen the damage that it has caused, it’s considerable. What we want to tell Bayelsans is that it was not something deliberate and it cannot be fixed immediately, that is the truth of the matter. The outage we have for now, we have seen it, when will get it fixed, Bayelsans will get power”.

Duba speaking further said, there is no financial responsibility for now since the PHDC and Transmission Company of Nigeria ( TCN) are still working round the clock to know the level of damages done to all the equipment. “For now they have not approach us for finance yet”.

Also speaking, his Power counterpart, Hon. Tonye Ebitei said, the Ministry of power is in talk with PHDC to inspect the level of damages done which he said they are working on.

“The transmission company of Nigeria has been here and we believe in no distance time our light will be restored. PHDC is working tracing the lines that were affected.
We can’t give a tentative date because the level of damages is much. In terms of restoring power, is going to be in no distance time”.

Speaking earlier, the station manager, Transmission Company of Nigeria, Richard Amadi said, the incident occurred on Sunday 24th September 2023 at about 11pm when a vehicle ran into one of the electric pole that dragged down so many high tension wires that badly affected power in Yenagoa and it’s environ.

Amadi said the damage is huge, saying he cannot quantify it for now. “Our crew are working on it and they have taken estimate of what happened until they conclude there investigation, we will not be able to know the cost”.

He said as soon as they finished working on it, power will be restored but cannot give a specific day.