Residents of Makurdi have expressed growing frustration over the worsening electricity supply by the Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC), describing the situation as unbearable amid intense heat conditions.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday, residents said the persistent outages have disrupted daily life and crippled business activities across the city.
From George Akume Way to High Level, many households and businesses report similar experiences of erratic power supply, resulting in spoiled refrigerated goods and sleepless nights. A food vendor, Jessica Ivarave, said the situation has forced her to purchase perishable items daily, as she can no longer keep drinks cold for customers.
In the North Bank area, the blackout has also triggered water shortages, with residents unable to pump water from boreholes due to the lack of electricity.
The crisis appears even more severe in some communities. Residents of Tse Adi, situated between Coca-Cola and Nyor, say they have been without electricity for over a year following a transformer fault in 2024. Despite repeated appeals to authorities, the area remains disconnected from the grid, with some residents reporting nearly 11 months of total blackout.
Reacting to the complaints, JEDC’s Head of Corporate Services, Adakole Elijah, attributed the situation to reduced power allocation from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). According to him, the available electricity is insufficient to meet demand, forcing the company to prioritize “Band A” customers under a rationing system.
Elijah further disclosed an infrastructure challenge affecting Makurdi North, where power lines running beneath the River Benue Bridge frequently develop faults. He noted that authorities are considering rerouting the lines over the bridge to improve reliability.
For now, JEDC maintains that it can only distribute the limited electricity supplied through the national grid, leaving many residents to endure prolonged outages.
