BY festus ahon

UGHELLI- OVER 5,000 women from Agbarha-Otor community, Ughelli North Local Government Area, Delta State, Monday, besieged the premises of Ughelli Business District of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, in protest over increase in electricity tariff.

The protesting women came in commercial buses and motorcycles at about 9am and disrupted traffic on the East-West Road for over 30 minutes.

The protesters had earlier converged at Agbarha-Otor community at 6am, forcing officials of PHCN office in the community to scamper for safety.

A woman leader in the community, Mrs Ovomarayini Omirhobo, who spoke on behalf of the protesters, described the increase in electricity tariff as unjustifiable. She decried the tariff, which she noted had been increased from N1,000 and N1,500 to between N8,000 and N10,000 per building monthly.

Expressing shock at the increase in the electricity bill, the woman leader said the bills were not affordable to the people, whom she said were peasant farmers and petty traders.

Urging the management of PHCN to revert to the old tariff, Omirhobo lamented that residents of the community had continued to experience epileptic electricity supply and complete darkness.

She stressed the need for PHCN to concentrate on what should be done to pave way for stability in power supply.