Organisers of the protest against poor power supply in Anambra State scheduled for 14 March have announced the suspension of the action till further notice.
Osita Obi, coordinator of Electricity Consumers Rights Network in Anambra, announced the suspension of the protest at a news conference in Awka on Friday.
He was joined at the conference by Tony Erike and Nonso Okpara, representatives of the consumer community.
Mr Obi said it had become necessary to suspend the planned protest due to the volume of pressure and threats against him and other members of the organising team.
He said responses from their various engagements with the Anambra State Government, the police, and the State Security Service pointed to security concerns, and that they had no choice but to back down.
“The protest against the poor electricity supply in Anambra, planned for 14 March in Awka, will no longer hold as scheduled.
“This is in response to the concerns raised, and we are shelving the protest.
“We had a series of meetings with the Anambra State Government, Police Command and the Department of State Services, and they all raised security concerns.
“I have received not less than 157 phone calls, I was even threatened that I will be held responsible for whatever will happen if anything goes wrong,” he said.
Mr Obi, who regretted the suspension of the protest, called on electricity customers not to relent in their demand for quality service delivery.
He encouraged customers to attend the town hall meeting organised by FirstPower Electricity Distribution Company on 18 March.
PREMIUM TIMES reported earlier that the police in Anambra had urged the organisers of the planned protest to engage in dialogue with the FirstPower Electricity Distribution Company Ltd rather than resort to protest.
The electricity company has appealed to electricity consumers to bear with it over the poor power supply in the state, saying the problem is not its fault.
“Whenever national electricity generation declines, the amount allocated to every distribution company across Nigeria automatically drops.
“Nigeria has recently been experiencing a major reduction in electricity generation due to a severe shortage of natural gas supply to thermal power plants, which produce the bulk of electricity on Nigeria’s national grid.
“This was worsened by the disruption caused by an explosion on the Escravos-Lagos gas pipeline in December last year, an incident that affected the operations of several gas-fired power plants,” Izunna Okafor, head of communications at FirstPower, said on Thursday in Awka.
(NAN)