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Management of the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KEDC), a subsidiary of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), yesterday accused Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko of Sokoto State of assaulting three of its workers over a case of continuous power failure in his home town of Wamakko. The governor’s spokesman however denied the charge, saying the PHCN men concocted the story in order to cover up their persistent economic sabotage activities in the state.

 

Speaking in Kaduna yesterday, Acting Managing Director of KEDC Malam Mohammed Adamu said the officers were summoned to the governor’s house in Sokoto and were beaten to a pulp by the governor and some of his aides.

 

He said, “On Saturday, 20th October, 2012, an unusual and unfortunate event took place which was beyond our comprehension. On the said date our business manager, Gwiwa Business Unit, Sokoto State, Engineer Moses Osigwe was invited by His Excellency, the Executive Governor of the state, Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko to his personal residence, over the issue of lack of power supply to his hometown, Wamakko as a result of a failed 2.5MVA transformer.

“He accused our staff of deliberately denying his community of power supply. As the business manager tried to give an explanation, he brought out a horse whip and lashed him to a pulp. His Excellency’s brutality did not just end with him alone, as he also invited and instructed two hefty mobile policemen to continue with the beating spree until the business manager fell to the ground and became unconscious.

“In the same vein, the Governor did not stop at the beating of our business manager but invited two other staff of the company, namely Malam Isyaku Dauran, Officer 2 (Electrical) and Malam Nuruddeen Mohammed, Staff 1 (Lines) and ordered the mobile policemen to beat them up.”

However, Wamakko’s Senior Special Assistant on Media Affairs Malam Sani Umar dismissed the allegation as false and without basis. He said Governor Wamakko, who is known all over this country as a calm and peace-loving man, will not stoop so low to assault a PHCN official.

What actually happened, Umar said, was that the governor invited the officials to his house because an angry delegation had come from Wamakko town to protest persistent power failure in the town in the past two years. He said, “The problem started during the flooding in the state two years ago, when many PHCN posts fell to the ground. The state government contacted PHCN and provided everything they asked for. However, not long after they repaired the posts, the transformer in the area blew up.”

He said, “Engineer Moses, who is personally close to the governor, soon used the transformer as a drain pipe to blackmail the state government. He collected over N17 million but up until now, could not restore power to the area. We suspect he is on an economic sabotage mission because PHCN has refused to energise many villages in the state that were connected to the national grid, even though we have paid everything that they demanded.” Umar said all that Wamakko did was to hand over the PHCN men to the police for proper investigation