Aba landlords give TCN 24 hours ultimatum to reconnect Aba’s electricity
By Ijendu Iheaka
Aba (Abia)
Aba Landlords Protection and Development Association (ALPADA) has given Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) a 24 hours ultimatum to restore Aba Power Limited (APL) to the National grid or face various forms of protests.
The association gave the ultimatum on Friday at its Port Harcourt Road Office in Aba while briefing newsmen on the disconnection of Aba Power Limited by TCN.
TCN had disconnected Aba Ring-Fenced Area comprising nine local government areas in Abia on April 21, after giving APL notice of disconnection on April 19.
ALPADA lamented the untimely death of many Aba residents in the past one week following the disconnection which threw the city into darkness and disabled health Institutions.
NAN reports that TCN on Friday, April 21, disconnected APL from the National Grid, citing a debt of N896,210,059.58 it claims that the DisCo owes it.
The President-General of ALPADA, Chief Alphonsus Udeigbo, said while it cannot question the reason for the disconnection, it firmly believes that the disconnection order breached electricity industry rules.
“First, a suspension notice dated April 19th, 2023, was issued to APLE, requiring the company to remedy the default within thirty (30) business days from the date of suspension notice in line with sub-rules 46.3.3 and 4 of Electricity industry market rules (EIMR), 2010.
“Curiously on the same date of the suspension notice, the market operator wrote to the Executive Director (TSP) TCN, notifying him that the market operator had issued a disconnection order to APL Electric.
“The order was for non-compliance, without copying or addressing the said disconnection order to APL Electricity and consequently proceeded to disconnect the entire Aba and its environs from power supply.
“Secondly, the purported disconnection order made on the same date the suspension notice was issued on APL Electricity, without giving it the opportunity to remedy the situation as demanded under the suspension notice.
“The suspension notice is in total breach of the Market Rules and runs contrary to the content of the suspension notice as well as in total breach of APL Electricity right to Fair Hearing”, he said.
Udeigbo said the disconnection had cost Aba business community over N3 billion in losses.
He therefore urged TCN to apply human face in their actions adding that the association does not want problems in the city at all.
“The TCN violated their own rules. We know that there are other DisCos owing more than APL, but their cities are not thrown into darkness like Aba.
“This is an action taken in bad fate; we are seriously sensing a well-planned economic and security sabotage through which actions Aba had been placed in danger.
“Criminals can take advantage and vandalize the whole electricity equipment like cables because they know there’s no power.
“It is pure sabotage on the Aba business community because we have many customers who cannot come here again because they know productions are not going on.
“All the garment industries in Aba are shut down and the economy of the South-East not just Aba as a city is under attack through TCN’s action.
“This great and important economic and commercial city is seriously suffering, and we call on the Federal Government to respond now before TCN shuts down Aba economy and sends millions of its people into unemployment”, he said.
