Residents of the Birnin-Kebbi metropolis, who have been plunged into total darkness for more than fourteen days, are lamenting in frustration and anguish, as there seems to be no hope in sight for the restoration of power supply in the state capital.
It would be recalled that Birnin-Kebbi town and its environs were engulfed in darkness due to fire incidents at the substation of the national grid on Thursday, September 14th.
The plight of the people worsened as there was no electricity to power electrical stoves for cooking their meals.
Additionally, liquefied natural gas (LNG), which had served as an alternative for cooking, is not available to buy. In the last week, LNG, popularly called gas, has been scarce for cooking.
Only two gas plants are available in the entire state, including the Katangarawa gas plant and the A.A. Ramp gas plant, both domiciled in Birnin-Kebbi town, the state capital.
Katangarawa plant has been closed since last weekend, while A.A. Ramp, which is serving the community, is besieged by buyers, forming long queues stretching up to 500 metres with different sizes of cylinders.
Industrial cylinders are also in high demand, causing queues up to 500 metres.
During our visit to the A.A. Ramp plant to understand the cause of the long queues, the station manager, Malam Sulaiman Ahmed Al-Ameen, explained that there has been no supply from the main depots in Lagos and Port Harcourt for the past 30 days.
Plants that have exhausted their products remain locked up since there is nothing to sell and no supply.
Malam Al-Ameen called on the Federal Government to quickly intervene before the situation worsens and spirals out of control.
The majority of families in the metropolis have resorted to buying firewood for their domestic cooking.
Trees planted to combat desertification are now being felled on a daily basis to produce charcoal.
A bag of charcoal in Birnin-Kebbi was sold for N4,000 last weekend, but due to the scarcity of gas, the price has surged to N7,000 per bag.
Residents are urgently calling on the Federal Government to intervene in the plight of the suffering people, who face these challenges on a daily basis.
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