SELF-HELP:Residents of Phase 2 Site 1 Secure Their Power

Residents of Burutu Road in Phase 2 Site 1 (2-1) Kubwa woke up after a rainy night on Thursday, 25th of September 2025, and went about their normal business, believing that the power outage they were experiencing was routine.

It had rained quite heavily the previous night, and the assumption was that the AEDC cut their power supply to protect the lines as they would usually do whenever it rained.

Well, within 24 hours, it became clear that something was wrong, but nobody thought it was more than the familiar case of loss of phase or trip off. Residents on the small transformers were enjoying light, while others were not. Those others are connected to the big transformer. On reporting, AEDC operations team arrived to check for the fault and came out to announce that the armoured cable that recieves powered into the transformer had been stolen!

If we don’t do it, they will not answer us; if they will answer us it will take forever  

The residents reported that this incident was the second time in one year that the transformer had been vandalised! It took community effort and financial contribution for the stolen part to be replaced, and that was going to happen all over again.

Power cable bought by 2-1 residents

And it happened again.

The leader of the community, Elder Benjamin Adewoyin, who has been interfacing with the management of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) Kubwa Area office at PW, presented copies of letters that were sent to the company requesting their attention to secure the transformer and improve safety on the site. The requests included changing the weak, termite-infested “uprisers” (wooden poles) and making arrangements to prevent fires that sometimes start when sparks occur from the transformer.

These repeated requests remain unattended, even with the attention of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and other relevant agencies drawn to the plight of the community, leaving residents feeling helpless and with no choice but to cooperate for self-help.

According to a resident “If we don’t do it (buy the cable), they will not answer us, if they will answer us it will take forever”.  So, with pain and grudgingly, the affected community members contributed money again to buy another armoured cable, then wrote to the AEDC to send technicians to install it for them.

This time, on the advice of the technical team, the cables were cast in concrete using water pipes to reduce the chance of future theft. Furthermore, the residents determined to secure the site of the transformer by providing a metal barricade to restrict access to the transformer by unauthorised persons and particularly, vandals.

AEDC Power Transformer

This situation underscores some of the challenges communities in Kubwa face with regard to security and public utility installations that directly affect their lives. It reveals the need for public service providers to be more responsive in their service delivery to forestall cases of unplanned expenses, which in this case were borne by victimised residents. The unjust part is that the residents will continue to pay for the electricity they consume, while the company feels no obligation or sense of urgency to secure their critical assets and installations through which they generate revenue.

The residents call for a change to the state of affairs as the current situation does not engender confidence in them towards the electricity service provider.