wow now i can sue phcn Nepa for mental distress whats happening oh? seems like we going down the path of justice hurray!!!

Culled from the Guardian

CONTRARY to widespread feelings of helplessness experience by victims of negligence on the part of the Power Holding Company (PHCN) - formerly National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), a woman who survived electrocution from a NEPA cable, has secured N18 million [/b]in damage from a Federal High Court, Lagos after successfully suing the power company.

With the judgment, Mrs. Abosede Elugbaju, became the first person to win a personal injury claim suit against the state agency. [b]Her claim is also the highest to be awarded by any Nigerian court for personal injury damages.

The case however lasted five painstaking years before the trial judge, Justice Oyindamola Olomojobi, in a trial that involved moving the court to the locus in quo (the scene of accident).

For Mrs. Elugbaju, the plaintiff, September 25, 2002 started like any other day. She had everything going for her. At 35, she had a good marriage that had produced three children, the first of who had just secured admission to the Federal Polytechnic in a neighbouring state. The second child was then in a high school while the third was in a private nursery/primary school.

The Elugbajus were certainly not wealthy; the husband, Olugbenga, was a teacher in a primary school in Lagos while Abosede was a seamstress.

The couple however coped well until September 25, 2005 when a cable on an 11 KVA NEPA pole got severed in front of Mrs. Elugbaju's shop at Church Street, Alapere, Ketu, Lagos.

The situation was described by her husband thus: "On that fateful day, my wife was reclining on the metal door of her shop at about 3.00 p.m. when a NEPA 11 KVA cable snapped from a decayed wooden cross bar. The cable then travelled in a zigzag way across the street to my wife's shop and landed on the metal door.

"Instantly, she was electrocuted. Fortunately, the transformer serving the area exploded almost simultaneously as my wife was being electrocuted and this caused a drop in voltage. Within that couple of seconds, my wife had become a strange and pitiable sight. She was badly burnt and in a state of coma."

Thus began the journey through hell for Mrs. Elugbaju. She was initially taken to a private hospital before she was admitted at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, where her injured leg was immediately amputated.

For several months, the Elugbajus sought the assistance of NEPA and the Federal Government. They wrote letters to the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his wife, Titi Abubakar, as well as the Minister of Mines and Power. All was to no avail.

The only assistance the distressed couple received was from the Lagos State Ministry of Health that bought an artificial limb for Mrs. Elugbaju at the cost of N420,000. It was at this juncture that they contacted human rights lawyer and activist, Jiti Ogunye, in their bid to get compensation from NEPA.

Several letters by Ogunye to NEPA yielded no result until the agency was served a court summons. NEPA then reacted by offering to the victim the sum of N500,000 as full and final settlement of claims. This was on November 14, 2005.

By April 2006, NEPA increased its offer to N900,000 and later the same year, the offer was increased to two million naira.

But the victim roundly rejected all the offers, claiming that none of them represented the cost of medical expenses not to talk of the care of the victim.

The case in court thus proceeded to a trial.

Justice Olomojobi examined the NEPA Act 256 Laws of the Federation, 1990, especially Sections 7 and 8 of the Act, and stated: "From the aforestated provisions, it is glaringly clear that the defendant has the obligation of managing, maintaining, and working of electricity undertaking. It is also endowed with the responsibility of maintenance, repair, or removal of any electric lines, fittings, apparatus or appliance for lighting."

The judge further referred to the evidence of a defence witness, Mr. Olayinka Ogunbiya who was then the principal manager of Ikeja distribution zone of NEPA.

Justice Olomojobi then said: "I hold that the defendant owed the plaintiff the duty of care to ensure that its apparatus are properly maintained and repaired immediately it observed any fault, to avert any injury to the citizens contrary and in particular the plaintiff in the instant suit."

On the second issue, the trial judge stated: "I wish to state here that the non-replacement of the stay wire which was said to have been cut before the incident of September 2002 is an act of gross negligence on the part of the defendant. Even five years after the incident, when the court visited the locus in quo, the stay wire was yet to be replaced."

Justice Olomojobi thus awarded a total N17,970,000 damages in favour of the plaintiff against the defendants.

After the judgment, Mr. Ogunye said: "This judgment is a celebration of the judiciary as it will encourage judges to perform similarly in deserving cases. It will also motivate Nigerians whose rights may be breached by obviously powerful and seemingly unaccountable public bodies in Nigeria, to enforce their rights, through the judicial forum when other options are not yielding the desired result."

This is indeed music to my ears. more of this please

Please how much will the judge get in Kickback

so you think the woman can bribe the judge more than nepa can?

I'm afraid of PHCN O! I have constant electricity for about 6 days straight now. Almost a week!
I fear that something is wrong. Maybe the switch for shunting our line off is broken. I'm scared that when they fix the switch, they may put off the power for a week.

It just feels abnormal. The last time I experienced this kind of constant power was in '97 so y'all can understand my apprehension.

I beg denex where do u live?

Lekki O! Abi is it because of those new prepaid meters?

There's something strange going on.

I'm afraid of PHCN O! I have constant electricity for about 6 days straight now. Almost a week!
I fear that something is wrong. Maybe the switch for shunting our line off is broken. I'm scared that when they fix the switch, they may put off the power for a week.

It just feels abnormal. The last time I experienced this kind of constant power was in '97 so y'all can understand my apprehension.

Or may be they are on strike.

It also happened to me and we paid dearly for it by total darkness for three weeks.

Mamajama:

Please how much will the judge get in Kickback

Haba mamajama, why u balways dey ttink like this now.

as regards PHCN, i am in the same situation as denex cos there has been power everyday now and i wonder wat they are trying to do. it felt really eerie cos its very unusual for bthere to be power like that.
please whoever works in Nepa/PHCN should let us know wat the plan is.
cheers

Congratulation to the Judiciary. and to the govt, becasue the latter could interfere and make the Judiciary job difficult.

May the Lord be with the family of Elugbaju and the Plaintiff lawyer and his persistence.

On the power which has been on for 6 days we should celebrate it.

However, when you have been hungry for so long and you get much food in one go, you will be forgiving for being suspicious of poison, maybe PHCN has finally find or begin to find solution to the problem of power outage.

I prayed in the mighty name of Our Lord jesus Christ that they do find a solution and find it now, this year , not next year and not 20 years.

@angel & Planner

I think I talked too fast. The lights went off by 7am and came back on in the evening. Dem don repair the switch but I hope the case doesn't get as bad as your experience.

Trust the state. They will appeal fast. Not yet uhuru, as the Supreme Court may be the final destination. Goodl uck to the poor woman, though

I believe they will pay up without much hassle. Just for the sake of information, the PHCN is no more a State Facility.

They will pay afterall, they already wanted to settle out of court.

@denex
eiya i had arranged a party to celebrate ur power situation. so now i will have to text my mates to say the party is off

na wa for my people. i was actually getting very excited cos i am going to be in lagos soon.

@angel101

The electricity situation will get better gradually as the Niger-Delta crises ends and enough gas becomes available for the Gas Thermal Stations. Then also as more of the Independent Power Projects come online to and start supplying to the national grid.

Dem don still take the light again this morning.

denex:


Dem don still take the light again this morning.

lol

I happen to have a more serious problem in my house in Lagos. Low current. Do u have any idea how that can be remedied?

@angel101

I think that problem is one of density in that area. Even distributing of the houses among transformers will most definitely solve that.

They just brought the light back at 10:15 am.

I think the new meter helps too because you pay for exactly what you use. No light, no revenue especially now that the government is pulling all funding for PHCN.

So we need to lobby for more transformers. nice

Good News*
But PHCN will have used that money to imporve services oh,
what d'u think

So sorry for the injured woman , it makes no sense for PHCN to appeal again , they simply pay the woman ans repair their cables .


someone came here from Nigerian this week and was telling me that electricity have improved in their area very much , he lives at kilo area where ever that is

my sister said the same thing. she went to benin in june

@Post

This is a sign of good things to come politically, legally, and economically.

Government and their parastatals have some responsibility to naija people, their customers.

Thats true Naija King*

I hope they can only improve on this, we need only forward movement , no one step forward and 10 step backwards , God bless Nigeria .

A trusted legal system is key to any civilized society.

People should be confident that no matter how long it takes, they will recieve justice.

If they are confident that justice will be served, people tend not to take the law into their hands.

So I say, find a way to sue, sue, and sue!!!!

Sue the police, banks, water board, universities, hospitals, state/local governments!

This good news because the time has come for us all collectively to make PHCN-Problem Has Changed Name,Please Hold Candle Nigerians pay for all the damage they have caused emotionally,physically etc