The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) PLC, has accused Julius Berger PLC, of subjecting 4200 of its esteemed customers, residing in Iyiowa and Odekpe areas of Anambra State to darkness and untold hardship for over 18 days, as a result of the ongoing 2nd Niger Bridge construction in South-East and South-South, along Atani road, which according to the power company, has affected the underground cable powering EEDC’s IYIOWA 11KV feeder.
EEDC Head of Communication, Mr Emeka Ezeh, who disclosed the development in a statement made available to Tribune Online in Awka, on Thursday, explained that as a result of the act which happened since 7th of February, 2020, the IYIOWA 11KV feeder has been out of supply due to the underground cables that were punctured in many sections by the heavy equipment belonging to Julius Berger.
According to him, the construction company embarked on the excavation of the cable corridor without notifying EEDC to assist by granting outage or possibly deploying its cable locator equipment to properly identify the location of the cable.
Usually, before such a project is embarked on, the contractor is expected to engage EEDC to ensure safety precautionary measures are in place and to also provide technical assistance by assigning its staff familiar with the network, to ensure proper management of the electrical asset during excavation.
“This negligent by Julius Berger resulted in damaged and punctured EEDC cables by their heavy equipment.
“We have had other incidents in recent past where their team or sub-contractors worked in areas within our cable corridor at the location without recourse to our organization, and also damaged our cables and assets”, Ezeh added.
According to Ezeh, It was gathered that EEDC has officially written to the Management of Julius Berger PLC on this development, through its Commercial Manager, BridgeHead Yard, Ogbaru, but still awaiting their response.
“This forced outage has significantly resulted in high loss of revenue to our organization, equally disrupted commercial activities and subjected our customers to avoidable inconveniences”
We, therefore, use this medium to appeal for the understanding of our esteemed customers affected by this situation, while we continue to follow up with Julius Berger for a lasting solution to this issue.
We also sincerely apologise for the discomfort this situation must have caused our esteemed customers, he summited.
and then