It takes the whole body to weep, but
the eyes to cry, at a tragedy. The Power Holding Company of Nigeria
(PHCN) has made a lot of comedy of the citizens, and their deaths.
Without
gainsaying the fact, the company is egotistical. The company’s
rapacious actions have become the first tragedy to the citizens’
coexistence and mutual understanding. Its actions and words are
merciless. It has made and regarded the people as unimportant. The
citizens’ different worlds are going blank. How long shall the people
then continue to believe in this philosophy as said by the Dalai Lama
XIV: “There is a saying in Tibetan, 'Tragedy should be utilized as a
source of strength'?
Barely 12yrs old, and a junior secondary
school student of Government Secondary School, Oroworukwo, Rivers State,
Uchechukwu Ewurum had gone to be with his mother who went to condole
with a relative at a neighbouring compound from their No 8 Ojoto Street,
Port Harcourt, when he was nearly killed; he touched a wire with
haughty electric current which had rested on the handrail of a building.
The
story of the young Ewurum in the March 30, 2013 edition of Saturday
Sun, and the picture that accompanied that unappealing story, were all
irritable and quick-tempered.
The story demonstrates another
shameful achievement of the PHCN. The poor son to Peter Ewurum was full
of life till he met the sad event from the careless PHCN that would keep
him incapacitated and in melancholy all his life.
In the words of
the father: “As my wife got there, she met my cousin’s wife downstairs
and they started discussing. Uchechukwu, who heard that his mother was
there, ran to the place to join her. On getting there, he went to my
cousin’s room upstairs. Unknown to him, there was a death trap, a
dangling high-tension wire that was touching the handrail. According to
experts, the current in the wire was more than 11,000 KVA. As soon as my
son held it (handrail), to beckon on his mother to come upstairs, he
was electrocuted.”
This is how Uchechukwu met the sad story of his
life that led to the amputation of his right hand from near the throat.
So the report said: “Uchechukwu was thrown down by the power of the
electric current. His right hand was damaged instantly. Also, his tummy
was severely burnt. The lad was rushed to the hospital unconscious,
where doctors battled to save his life. After fruitless efforts at
restoring the badly damaged hand, doctors amputated it on March 4, 2013,
following the discovery of decay.”
The father cried: “My son is
maimed for life, incapacitated throughout his life; if life is difficult
for people with two hands. What about someone who has only one hand?
His education is now stalled and under threat. I want justice. PHCN is
liable for my son’s plight. The company should be held responsible. My
wife is now devastated, because of the present condition of her son, who
was full of life before he came out to welcome her. Please, tell the
government, human rights organisations and concerned Nigerians to come
to my aide. They should compel PHCN to pay compensation for the damage
they have caused my son.”
Now, the unexpected has happened to
Uchechukwu, and the expected has set in for the father. The report went
further: “When the hospital told him to make an initial deposit of N50,
000, he had only N6, 000 on him. To save his son’s life, he had to
borrow not less than N90, 000 so far.... The sad dad said that officials
of the PHCN had, out of neglect, exposed residents of the area to
danger. He revealed that when the company was notified of the cut
high-tension wire, its officials had engaged themselves in heated
argument on who should climb the electric pole to disconnect and replace
the damaged accessories. ‘As a result, the repair work was not carried
out’.”
This is also how on Saturday morning of February 13, 2010,
countless people were roasted like flies, when a high tension wire
belonging to the same careless PHCN landed on two commercial buses in
downpour, killed and injured all the passengers on the spot, and the
charred bodies were deposited at the morgue of Braithwaite Memorial
Hospital (BMH).
While Uchechukwu met his tragedy at Ojoto, the
innocent passengers met their untimely deaths around Oginigba, very
close to Slaughter at Trans Amadi area of Obio/Akpor Local Government
Area, Rivers State.
Many people then said that it was the same
careless attitude of PHCN to work that nearly killed Uchechukwu that
also took the lives of the unsuspecting passengers and injured some.
Residents’ hopes were raised that respite was coming then, and another tragedy won’t happen again.
What the residents got from the authorities are as follows:
The
state police public relations officer said: “For now, we have
barricaded the place and our men are everywhere to prevent people from
moving around there so that they will not get hurt. However, we have
contacted the PHCN and they are already doing something. They have
already come there to remove the wire. Very soon everything will come
back to normal.”
PHCN spokesman said: “The incident resulted from a
wire cut, which fell on top of two buses loading under high tension
wires. In 2005, 2006 and even in ongoing campaigns, we have been warning
the people against trading and loading under high tension cables, which
are risky ventures.”
Secretary to Rivers State Government (SSG)
reportedly “n company of some commissioners, later visited the
Braithwaite Memorial Hospital where some of the survivors were rushed
to. The SSG assured them of government support. He also appealed to
residents of the state to avoid building or doing business under high
tension cables.”
The government’s contribution: “Five days after
some people died from the electrocution, the Rivers State government
ordered that all structures, both permanent and makeshift close to high
tension wire be immediately demolished.”
It was not certain
whether the government buried or assisted to pay the hospital bills of
those who were rushed to the hospital from the electrocution in 2010,
but here in 2013, Peter Ewurum, the father of Uchechukwu, is not only
worried that his son has been rendered debilitated for life by a PHCN’s
unguided cable, but also, “worried that he would not be able to pay the
medical bills, as the emergency came suddenly.”
The citizens are
not too sure what to make of this PHCN that embarks on empty strike at
will, when its products are killing Nigerians. The citizens are also not
too sure what to make of this firm that has been severally alleged
present the citizens with bloated monthly levy.
In different
treatises commentators had cried with anger.“The law should compel PHCN
to pay damages to this family and adequate punishment to the unit or
persons for negligence of duty, one said.”
“My heart melt for this
country called Nigeria. In a developed world the father of this young
lad doesn’t need to be talking about money to pay for the treatment,”
another said.
It
appears that buddies, Yvonne Nelson and Sandra Ankobiah have ended
their glamorous friendship that has seen them share laughs, travels and
parties together. Friday, April 12 was a big day for both stars but they
were not there for each other. Sandra Ankobiah earlier in the day
celebrated her call to the bar with several of her celebrity friends but
Yvonne was conspicuously absent. And later in the day, Yvonne premiered
her much-talked about self-produced movie, ‘House of Gold’ and Sandra
was also not present although she also made an appearance in the movie.
Cristiano
Ronaldo is already counting down the hours until the starting whistle
of the Champions League quarter-final playoffs against Galatasaray. The
Portuguese striker, tied as the competition’s highest scorer with his
upcoming rival Burak Yilmaz, analyzed the first-leg match for the Bwin
website: “The game against Galatasaray will be wide open and very
balanced. We have to play well, like we do at home in the Champions. We
know that it’s a squad that also attacks a lot and that’s good, because
our chances of winning increase when the opponent plays us one-on-one”.
At least nine people were killed and 17 others wounded on Monday
when insurgents detonated an oil tanker packed with explosives inside a
governmental compound in the Iraqi city of Tikrit, police said.
Pirates are thought to have drowned 16 fishermen in southern Bangladesh in order to steal their boat.
Badam
Zari told The Associated Press on Monday that she will participate in
the May 11 election to bring greater attention to problems facing women,
which she believes the government has ignored
William
Shakespeare's play Coriolanus, written at the height of the 1607 food
riots, shows a famine created and exploited by rich merchants and
politicians
