BY Johnbosco Agbakwuru

CALABAR – Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, has explained that poor execution of projects, vandalism of its equipment and customers’ huge indebtedness to the company have been responsible for the prolonged darkness experienced in some parts of Calabar Business Unit.

PHCN Business Manager in the area, Mr. Chukwuma Otiji, made this known at the PHCN/Customers Consultative Council meeting in Calabar, Cross River State capital yesterday.

He said the company was still grappling with incidences of poorly-executed  projects and appealed for a change of attitude by the contractors handling power projects in the zone.

He said: “The situation where substandard materials are used to execute power projects leave PHCN in precarious position as these projects easily fail within a short time. PHCN is thereafter saddled with the responsibility of operating and maintaining such poorly-executed projects with its limited resources.”

Otiji appealed to both customers and members of the public to watch over installations in their areas to prevent vandalism, even as he also urged security operatives to assist in protecting such equipment.

“Vandalism is another area where PHCN has been incapacitated. PHCN installations and equipment across the business unit have been incessantly vandalised thereby throwing our customers into prolonged darkness.

’’The cash crunch and economic down turn have made it impossible for PHCN to replace vandalised materials. It is worthy of note that because of lack of money, any community that allows power installation within its reach to be vandalised will bear the full cost of replacement.”