We're being driven out of business by PHCN

Artisans and small business owners in Akinola, Olorunto, Raji Razak, Okoya, Pipeline and other communities that make up Aboru community in Agbado Oke-Odo Local Government Development Area in Lagos, have decried incessant power outage in the area, adding that if not checked might force some of them out of job.Making these lamentations to Community News recently, some of the small business owners, comprising of barbers, vulcanisers, cyber caf operators and business centre owners, argued that officials of the PHCN in the area had turned themselves into 'tin gods that must be daily appeased before doing the right thing.'Bayo, a barber on Olorunto Street, stated that the community had in the past few weeks, been in total darkness, a situation which had made him and others running his type of business, to rely on generator to be in business.'It has been very tough. For instance, it would be 15 days today Wednesday, (April 25) that we had public electricity last in the community. I have been buying fuel at N97 per litre to be able to run my business. The profit margin is shrinking by the day due to PHCN negligence and inefficiency, and it is a matter of time before people like us throw in the towel if this situation persists,' stated this Higher National Diploma holder, who was compelled to set up the business after many years of fruitless search for job.But Mr Abe, who runs a business centre on Pipeline Street in the same community, argued that PHCN had outlived its usefulness, adding that unless something drastic was done, the nation's economy would continue to be in the doldrums.'Otherwise, how would you explain a situation where a whole community that is even big enough to be a town on its own be thrown into darkness for 15 days without anybody giving us reasons why this is so' 'We pay for this, yet we never enjoy it. It is becoming increasingly difficult for me now to run my service business I have been running for the past 10 years. If well managed, I use close to 20 litres of fuel on a daily basis, and when you multiply that by the number of days we've been in darkness in the area, it simply means one has spent close to N30,000 in 15 days.'Meanwhile, I cannot say I realised half of that money during that period. It is bad, PHCN is really drawing us back here,' he added.Corroborating the above views, a landlord in John Owhiyo, another community in the area, who would not want his name in print, believes the electricity company is only fleecing residents of the area of their hard-earned funds. 'It is not only the artisans and small business owners that are feeling the pinch. We residents of the community also feel cheated. For instance, the whole community has been in darkness for half a month now, but one would be surprised at the bills tbe company would bring at the end of the month. Besides, things have suddenly become expensive here due to power outage,' he added.
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