By Desire Emmanuel
A staff member of an electricity distribution company in Nigeria had a raw deal in the hands of soldiers as they allegedly attacked him and broke his head over power outage.
Mr James Ochepo, the staff member of the Jos Electricity Distribution Company, was said to have been assaulted by soldiers from the Nigerian Army School of Military Engineering (NASME), Makurdi, Benue State, over a power outage on the 11kV Daudu Feeder at the North Bank Injection Substation in Makurdi.
Jos Electricity Distribution Company is a franchise that supplies power to Plateau, Benue states, among others.
The management of JED Plc on Tuesday, February 17, condemned the assault in a statement signed by its Head of Corporate Communications, Ms Saratu Aliyu.
Narrating the incident, the company said on February 12 and 14, an army officer, accompanied by armed soldiers, broke into the Injection Substation at the North Bank.
She alleged that while they were inside the station, they molested Ochepo, who was the Distribution System Operator (DSO) on duty, over the power outage.
The statement added: “The officer reportedly threatened the staff member and confiscated his personal belongings.
“He later came back that same night with a handful of soldiers and beat the distribution system operator to stupor after smashing his head and causing severe injury to his hands.
“Ochepo was later rushed to the hospital for medical attention by a good Samaritan after being abandoned in a pool of his blood by the soldiers. He is currently recuperating.”
Aliyu added that the company explained that despite the prevailing dwindling allocation to the state and huge indebtedness by the Nigerian Army School of Military Engineering (NASME) to JED Plc, the company has continued to provide daily power supply to the army school.
“As a precautionary measure to safeguard its personnel, the company has temporarily withdrawn its staff from the injection substation.
“JED has escalated the matter to the Department of State Services (DSS), the Commissioner of Police, and the Benue State Government, while seeking intervention from relevant federal authorities,” the statement added.
