By Aisha Ahmed
Residents of Jahun local government area of Jigawa State on Monday celebrated power restoration after spending eight years in darkness.
Grassroots Parrot gathered that the eight years power outage was caused by vandalism.
Some of the residents in the area disclosed that their children, aged seven and below, have never witnessed light in the community.
Mr. Muhammed Abdullahi, a civil servant, said they were taken by a huge surprise when the power was restored just a month after the new chairman assumed duty.
“Prior to the restoration, no one in that community will believe that power can be quickly restored in the shortest time.
“We therefore express our gratitude to the new chairman and his team for their foresight because the power outages have driven many businesses away from the community,” Abdullahi said.
Also, a business owner who has a large grinding machine in the area, Mr. Umar Baballe, told our correspondent that the power outage forced him to abandon his business.
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He explained that he used to power the machine with diesel initially, but he realized he was running at a loss and he closed down the business.
Mr. Baballe expressed satisfaction that with the restoration of power in the local government, even water supply has improved in the community.
Speaking on the issue, the new chairman of the local government, Mr. Jamilu Danmallam, said he was shocked to note that the community lived in darkness this long.
He said that he invited experts to check the issue as his first project a few days after he assumed office.
The chairman explained that after a thorough analysis, they realized that the power went down because of vandalism and a lack of security.
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“We invited the police, and they informed us that they are short-staffed to secure the whole area and prevent vandalism.
“So we also invited other self-help groups, and we appealed to the police to build their skills and empower them to man the community.
“We did all this in just a few weeks of assumption into office, and the power was restored, and the community is presently under a vibrant security routine,Danmallam said.
Moreso, the new Chairman said they have now moved further to restore the vandalised mechanised solar boreholes in the local government area and some have already been rehabilitated.
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I therefore use this medium to appeal to residents of the community to assist us in taking care of infrastructure and avoid vandalizing them in the name of politics.
He stressed that any development that comes to the community through whatever channel, should be upholded and respected for the benefit of the community.
The Chairman however, commended Gov. Umar Namadi, for being a good mentor to him.