Talasse Community In Gombe Decry Non-Electrification Project Completion Of The Area

Goni Kyain

Residents of Talasse community in Balanga Local Government Area of Gombe state have decried the non-continuation of the electrification project of the community that would have benefited the people in the area.

This complaint came shortly after residents showed their concern over the failure of its representative at the House of Reps in the National Assembly Hon. Ali Isa JC, who facilitated a project to install Electrical Poles and other facilities, including transformers to generate power supply for the community in Talasse, but later turned off.

Reactions from residents in the area while speaking to our Correspondent in separate interviews in Talasse on Friday one Yakubu  Ayuba Talasse said, immediately after the flag-off of the project, the contractors swung into action and began installation of the Electrical poles and other facilities including transformers but all of a sudden, without any update the contractors stopped work at the site and removed all their equipment since then we haven’t heard anything he said.

While explaining further, he said reaching the lawmaker for an update had been very difficult due to the absence of a constituency office in the area, adding that the lawmaker has also yet to visit the community.

He pointed out that as soon as the contractors mobilized to the site and began work, many businesses that had shut down due to the power outage started to resurface however he said the suspension of the project at the site has dashed the hopes of many insisting that there is a clear communication gap between us, the constituents and the lawmaker we are in dire need of an update from the lawmaker he added.

According to Musa Damu Galadima (a.k.a. Musa Tela), “I own a tailoring shop, and power outages have negatively affected my business for years. We only work during the daytime and are forced to close early due to a lack of electricity. In the tailoring business, you need consistent power to meet customer demand. I rely on a generator during festive periods, but you know what it means to fuel a generator, it’s expensive, and we end up charging more, which is unaffordable for many of our customers due to the current economic hardship in the country.

I’ve had to let go of most of my apprentices because we no longer get enough work to sustain them, their feeding, transportation, and other costs. Honestly, we don’t even need to meet as a community to tell the lawmaker and other politicians what our needs are ahead of the 2027 general elections. Power is our major need and demand in this part of the state, the power outage is already crippling our businesses and economic activities daily, and that has been on for years”. he said.

On his part, Sulaiman  Idris Talase said, “For years now, I have been spending between N10,000 and N20,000 on ice blocks to run my business. Without electricity, our fridges don’t work. If they don’t work, we can’t operate because our customers come for cold drinks and chilled water. I’ve been getting ice block supplies from Gombe since it became clear that our inherited power outage is here to stay.

When Ali Isa JC initiated and flagged off the project, there was excitement across our communities, even our people outside the area were thrilled. The work had already reached my area of the town, a brand-new transformer and many poles were installed before the suspension, which has now become a major source of disappointment across every nook and cranny of the affected communities”.

Meanwhile in his response, the lawmaker Hon. Ali Isa JC in a brief interview with Journalists in Billiri on Sunday cited that there was a challenge with the federal government where the contractor were unavailable to continue with the project, but adding that modality is been put in place which he said the challenge concerning the contract, was not only his site but was a national thing some contractors have started resuming to site and lawmakers have various committees at the National Assembly and federal government is doing it best to ensure they put things on track, so in the next one month contractors will resume on work the lawmaker said.