Residents lament as power outage enters fourth day in Katsina

Residents of the Katsina metropolis and parts of Batagarawa Local Government Area are lamenting persistent power outages in their areas.

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PREMIUM TIMES reports that while several areas in the two local councils have gone four days without electricity supply, other areas are witnessing erratic power supply.

Residents lament that with the heat in the state, electricity supply should increase, not decrease.

The Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) said the outage was caused by a fault in a substation in the state.

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“The last time we saw light in this area was on Saturday. Today is Thursday, so it has been four whole days,” Rukayya Shehu, a married woman resident of NYSC camp layout in Barhim, told PREMIUM TIMES.

“The heat level these last two days has been scary but what can we do?”

Another resident of NYSC camp layout, Nafiu Aminu, said he has been sleeping outside his house due to the heat level.

“Since there’s no light, I have to sleep outside but that’s also risky because we have thieves and Kauraye breaking into people’s houses to steal. Sleeping outside is dangerous but that’s the only option we have,” he said.

Cold drinks sellers in the metropolis are also affected by the outage, a reason they increased prices.

An ice block seller on Barhim roundabout said the outage left them with no option than to increase the prices of ice block.

“We also have to buy diesel to power our generating set. If there was light, we’ll not need to do that.”

Checks by PREMIUM TIMES revealed that ice block sold for N100 naira a week ago now goes for N150 and N170.

The search for cold water intensifies every day as residents seek cold rooms to buy cold drinks.

“I have the phone number of one of them and I call him in the morning so he could keep ice water and any cold soft drinks. If I don’t book, I may end up going to the shop to join a long queue,” Salihu Nasir, who lives in Sabon Titin Kwado in the metropolis, said.

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KEDCO apologizes

Commenting on the outage, the management of the Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) regretted the situation and promised that it would soon be fixed.

“Dear Katsina Metropolis, we’re working swiftly to resolve the outage and restore your power supply.”

In a statement posted on its official X handle on Wednesday, KEDCO said the outage being experienced is as a result “of fault on 11kv incomer breaker at the 15MVA Transformer in IBB way Injection Substation.”

KEDCO said the outage is being experienced by customers on 11kV Dandagoro, 11kV GRA and 11kV Army Barracks feeders.

“Our technical team have been mobilised promptly to carry out repairs, hence the power transformer is isolated while replacement if the faulty component is ongoing,” the statement added.