By John Odhe, YENAGOA
More residents of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, have continued to express gratitude to the State governor, Senator Douye Diri following the improved electricity supply in the capital city.
Residents of Opolo, Biogbolo, Yenizue-gene, Kpansia, Yenizue-Epie, Okaka, Okutukutu and Etegwe in the Yenagoa municipality are full of indebtedness to the Senator Douye Diri led prosperity government for initiating independent electricity to encourage ease of doing business.
They are particularly perplexed that the 60-megawatt power project which began in February last year was completed on record time despite unforeseen technical hurdles that slowed down the pace of work at some point.
Bassey Abraham, a barber’s shop operator at Biogbolo community said the steady light could not have come at a better time.
“The light makes sense. It is coming at the right time. Check out the price of fuel today. They are selling fuel between N1,250 and N1300 per litre in some feeling stations.
“Everyday, used to buy not less than N7,000 fuel to run my gen. How much am I getting? It was like working for fuel alone.
“I’m really grateful to governor Diri. For the whole of this week, I have bought fuel just once. If this light had been steady like this since I started this business, I would have done something meaningful,” he said.
Also commenting on the light situation, a young man who renders laundry services at Yenizue-gene, community, Paul Emeka, who described electricity as the hub of small scale businesses said “governor Douye Diri has done what is expected of a visionary leader.
“I have been doing this job for the past five years but there is nothing to show for it. It even became worse after president Bola Tinubu removed fuel subsidy and the price of petrol jumped up.
“But this gas turbine has given us a new lease of life. Since power supply became stable here in Yenizue-gene, I don’t know of other places, I know how much I have saved. Before now, there was no savings.
“Instead of saving money from the business, I was running into debts. I couldn’t pay my rent. I was not meeting up at all. Everything was going to fueling of generator. Thank God for governor Diri.”
On some area that are yet to be connected to the independent power supply due to transformer failure and other technical glitches, the authorities have urged the residents to be patient as efforts are ongoing to ensure every home is connected.
