Aba residents on Tuesday expressed concern over poor supply of electricity by the Aba Power Limited (APL), and called for government intervention.
Some of the residents who spoke to newsmen in Aba said that the poor supply of electricity had affected their business progress in the city.
The residents urged Abia state government to as a matter of urgency call the power company to order.
Mr Uche Maduako, a trader who deals in battery, said most traders were no longer depending on the electricity supply to do their businesses or for private use at home.
According to him, his business is located at Azikiwe road and what they are expriencing regards power supply is beyond exploration.
“APL gives us light three to four times in a month and this made people to be reluctant and at time refuse to pay the bill.
“It is the same at residentail houses and at the end of the month they come with outrageous bills because their houses are not metred but use estimates billing,” he said.
Maduako urged the state government to intervene and talk to the electricity company to provide pre-paid meter to both residential and commercial houses to further avoid being created through estimates billing.
“I believed once all this is done, people will be willing to pay for what they consume and the case of indequate power supply will be a thing of the past,” Maduako said.
Pascal Orji, a printer at Asa road, expressed dismayed over lacked of power supply, saying inadquate power supply had made life difficult for residents.
“This is a commercial city and the traders depend on sales of their goods to pay children’s school fees, house rent and other bills,” Orji said.
Ikechukwu Okoro, said the residents are suffering especially the traders within the metropolis, noting that APL supply power to customers not more than four days in a month.
He said, the worst part of the whole thing was that the outrageous bill despite inadequate power supply which made the residents speechless whenever they received bills.
“At times we loss customers because there is no light and the customer needed the work urgent. So many who depend mostly on power supply to work are gradually going out of business.
“As for residential houses, we see ourselves on the same level with those living inside the village but it is a shame to the state government for failure to provide us with social aminities,” he said.
Chikezie Odeme who runs a Bear Palour at Pound road said business at the axis had been affected by the irregular power supply.
Odeme called for improvement to enable business people in the area to survive, saying the problem needed urgent government attention
