Kano community protests seven-year outage, laments hoodlums’ attacks

Women, including housewives, on Wednesday, in Chika Sarari and Medile Quarters, in the Kumbotso Local Government Area of Kano State, staged a peaceful protest against seven years of power outage in the communities.

The housewives, who were about a hundred, expressed dissatisfaction with the poor power supply to the two areas by the Kano Electricity Distribution Company.

A scene that is rare in a conservative Kano society. Tens of women were seen demonstrating and calling for the intervention of relevant authorities.

A spokesperson for the protesters, Hafsa Hamza, said, “For seven years, we have not seen a blink of light in our communities. The situation has not only given criminals the opportunity to operate freely, but emboldened them to carry out their nefarious actions without hindrance.”

Another protester, Mrs Aliyu Hamza, said, “We are imprisoned in our houses at sunset because of threats by criminals, and we believe that this protest will draw the attention of the government for possible intervention.”

Another woman, Ali Sani, said an unnamed legislator supplied them with a transformer, but the communities had not been able to raise enough funds for the electricity company to install it.

Efforts to contact the Head, Corporate Affairs, KEDCO, Ibrahim Shawai, failed as he refused to respond to several phone calls and a text message sent to him.

(The PUNCH)