Landlords Want TCN to Restore Power in  Aba, End Sabotaging S’East Economy

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

As the power outage in Aba, the commercial city of Abia State continues to bite harder, landlords have called on the Transmission Company of Nigeria(TCN) Market Operator to reconnect the commercial city to the national grid without further delay.

The landlords under the aegis of Aba Landlords Protection and Development Association (ALPADA) made the call yesterday at a press conference in Aba, saying that the “irrational, discriminatory and hasty” action of TCN was a calculated economic sabotage of the South-east zone.

The President General of ALPADA, Chief Alphonsus Udeigbo, who spoke on behalf of  the association said that the power outage had cost Aba over N30 billion in the last 10 days.

To halt the damage being done to the economy, the Aba landlords on behalf of electricity consumers within Aba and its environs demanded that TCN-MO should lift the disconnection order MO-DO/TCN/002/2023 within 24 hours.

“The timing (of the disconnection) is bad. It affects both the outgoing and the incoming administration in Abia. Aba has lost over N30 billion since the disconnection,” Udeigbo said, adding, “it is a sabotage of the economy of the South-east.”

The TCN Market Operator had on April 19, 2023 plunged Aba and its environs into total darkness after disconnecting Aba Power Limited from the national grid over indebtedness.

In the suspension notice dated April 19, 2023, signed by Dr. E.A. Eje, the Market Operator had accused Aba Power of “non-compliance with the market rules and failure to pay outstanding sum of N896,210,059.56.”

Aba Power, is a subsidiary of Geometric Power, supplies Aba Ringfence and its environs with electricity.

Udeigbo said that ALPADA was worried over the colossal damage the irrational power outage by TCN was doing to lives and businesses of residents of Aba and its environs hence their appeal for TCN MO to reconnect Enyimba City.

He said that the Aba landlords waded into the matter because “our members numbering well over 20,000 are consumers of electricity supplied/distributed to their individual houses and business places within Aba and its environs by APL Electricity Company Limited (APLE).”

Udeigbo said that the disconnection of Aba Power from the national grid was done in bad faith by the TCN-MO given the timing and the haste with which the action was carried out.

He pointed out that the TCN Market Operator had served Disconnection Notice on Aba Power dated April 19, 2023 asking the company to clear its debts and provide adequate bank guarantees within 30 business days.

The ALPADA leader wondered why the TCN- MO hastily issued a Disconnection Notice also dated April 19, 2023 and followed it up immediately with the disconnection of Aba Power the same day.

He said: “The purported disconnection order made on the same date the suspension notice was issued on APL Electricity without giving the company the opportunity to remedy the situation as demanded under the suspension notice is a total breach of the market rules. (It also) runs contrary to the content of the said suspension notice as well as in total breach of APL Electricity’s right to fair hearing.”

According to him, the TCN-MO was discriminatory in the manner it treated Aba Power given that other distribution companies with far bigger debt burdens were still enjoying grace period from the TCN.

The ALPADA PG warned that the association would take further action against the TCN-MO by shutting down its office at Alaoji Aba if it failed to heed to the call for reconnection of Aba to the national grid.