Abia State chapter of Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) has condemned the power outage that put the state in total darkness throughout the weekend.
The party said the power out­age was due to the sealing of the offices of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) in the state by the state govern­ment.
The Abia State Board of In­ternal Revenue (BIR) was said to have last Thursday sealed the offices of EEDC in the state over alleged non-remittance of taxes to the coffers of the state government. In a telephone chat, the state Secretary of PPA, Chief Uche Enyioko, said it was the height of insensitivity for government to have taken such action that put the whole state in darkness from Thursday, through the weekend with its at­tendant economic losses.
Enyioko said, much as the party was not in support of any individual, group or cooperate organisation failing to discharge their civic responsibilities vis-a-viz tax payment, it was wrong for the government to have in the process of trying to collect such taxes punish Abians whom he said were already trauma­tised.
“Residents, traders and in­dustrialists alike all depend on public power supply to run their homes, businesses and fac­tories in the state and due to insensitivity on the part of the state government to the plight of the people, an agent of that government, in the guise of revenue collection, put the entire state into total darkness throughout the weekend and nobody felt concerned.
“I don’t know why Presi­dent Goodluck Jonathan will be keeping quite while things go wrong in this state. The other time, it was the issue of the disengagement of work­ers in Abia who are said to be non-natives, we cried out and the Federal Government be­haved as if nothing happened.
“Look at it, throughout the weekend, the whole of Abia State had no power supply because of the action of an agent of the state government, and nobody as usual is talking.
“We are bringing this to the at­tention of Mr. President and urge him as the father of the nation to address some of the things go­ing wrong in Abia State to give the people a sense of belonging,” Enyioko said.
Enyioko, a former Commis­sioner for Agriculture in the state, said a responsive government which had the people it governed at heart should have resolved whatever issues it had with EEDC amicably instead of sealing its offices that came with it a lot of hardship to the people.

Power blackout: PPA berates Abia govt over insensitivity