Consumers should be compensated for power outage – Ex-guber candidate

Former Katsina State governorship candidate on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PRP), Imrana Jino, has called for compensation of electricity consumers who have been without power for over a week in Northern Nigeria.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Jino lamented that millions of people have been adversely affected by the power outage, especially small business owners who depend on electricity to sell their goods.

Jino, who is the founder of the Jino Support Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, described the power outage as unbearable for many, even as he added that such was an abnormality in the 21st century.

“Millions of northerners have been affected by the power outage, which has lasted for several days now. The man with a barbershop, the woman with a hairdressing salon, the welding man—all of these are adversely affected,” he said.

“Some of them have been unable to feed their families since the power outage; the number of out-of-school children has increased as they have to go a long distance to fetch water to take their bath as the local water board is no longer forthcoming due to a lack of electricity.”

The former gubernatorial candidate chided the Federal Government and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) for poor handling of the power outage, even as he called for urgent measures to end the problem.

“People’s lives and businesses have been deeply disrupted, and some may never recover. The government must acknowledge these losses and respond accordingly,” he said.

“With the level of suffering and losses incurred due to the power outage, we intend to set up a pressure group that would sue both the federal government and TCN for adequate compensation.

“We are going to ask people to fill in forms online, indicating the extent to which the power outage has affected their businesses, private endeavours, and so on.

“We are going to hire competent lawyers and seek the expertise of those familiar with electricity related matters, so that together we would collate the online complaints and use the same to sue for compensation.”