Kogi Hoteliers Decry Poor Power Supply

[contextly_auto_sidebar]

Kogi Central Hotel Operators Association has appealed to the Federal and State Governments to rescue their businesses from total collapse due to lack of power supply in the district.

The association also berated the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) for not keeping to her promises of distributing prepaid metres to customers after many years of promises.

Chairman of the association, Chief Haruna Osike who made the appeal in Lokoja yesterday while addressing newsmen on the incessant epileptic power supply in central senatorial district of the state , said virtually all the hotels in the area are at the verge of collapse due to lack of electricity.

He said, “We can no longer pay salaries to our staff . On several occasions we have to run generators more than twelve hours to keep our customers comfortable, we bought diesel and maintained our generators and these activities consumed what we suppose to enjoy as profit.

“Also on monthly basis we pay taxes to the local government and the state internal revenue service, all these are challenges we often encounter but yet no electricity to enhance our operations”.

Osike who lamented that the AEDC has reneged in her promise to supply prepaid meters to customers in the district, noted that the company jettisoned most of the agreement it reached with the federal government, “The management of AEDC in their last meeting with stakeholders in Okene told us unequivocally that within two weeks the company would supply over 50,000 prepaid metres to the district, but up till today the promise was never fulfilled, instead they brought analogue metres which they charged customers N10,000 before it can be mounted and this was not the prepaid meters they promised.

“It is evidently clear now that AEDC does not want to provide us prepaid metres so that the company can continue over billing us the way and manner they have been doing since the company took over power distribution in the area”.

Osike who urged the federal government to be proactive on the issue of power generation and distribution in the country, pointed out that many youths have lost their sources of livelihood to epileptic power supply in the district.

“Imagine if you are a welder and you don’t have the financial muscle to buy generator, you will be thrown out of business. If government can not create jobs for the youths and they (youths) are losing the one they manage, then government will continue to fight insecurity”.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *