Strike: Kaduna Residents Groan Under Power Outage

Residents of Kaduna State have continued to lament the power outage following the strike by members of staff of the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO).The blackout has paralysed social and economic activities in the state.

Recall that the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) declared a three-day strike against the sacking of 900 of its members by the electricity distribution company.

The blackout also led to water shortage in parts of Kaduna metropolis and surrounding areas.

Women and children struggled to fetch water from the few boreholes powered by generators or solar energy in their neighbourhood.

A resident of Tudun-wada, Aisha Muhammad, who spoke with our correspondent, said she had to go to a neighbour’s house on Friday morning to beg before she was allowed to fetch one basin of water.

Another resident, Mrs Stella Michael, said “Even when you have the money, getting the water to buy is a problem as some private borehole owners are complaining over the cost of buying fuel.

She said, “A cart of water now is sold for N2,500. We manage water because it’s very difficult to even get the vendors.”

Also, a housewife, Maryam Abubakar said her compound had a borehole but there was no electricity to pump the water.

Similarly, a businessman at the popular Central Market, Musa Ibrahim, said he had been buying water from vendors for the past three days.

“Every day, I buy N2,500 water from vendors and we didn’t plan for this, you can imagine spending N2,500 on buying water alone.

“Sometimes, my children even go to school late as I have to go out looking for water vendors. This is what we are facing.”

A resident of Narayi, Mrs Aaron Danjuma, explained that she now finds it difficult to grind grains due to the power outage.

Another housewife who identified herself as Hafsat said most of the tomatoes and meat stored in her freezer were going bad due to the power outage.

A meat seller at Sabo market, Adamu Abdullahi, also lamented the outage, saying that customers are no longer patronising them.

Meanwhile, the Kaduna State Government on Thursday stepped in to mediate the ongoing industrial dispute between Kaduna Electric and its workers’ union, which has left all its franchise states without electricity for four days.

The deputy governor, Dr Hadiza Balarabe, who hosted a meeting at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House urged the union to restore power as soon as possible, emphasising the widespread negative impact of the outage on homes, businesses and security.

Dr Balarabe appealed to both the management and the union to find common ground, stressing the need for continuous dialogue even after the current dispute is resolved.