Married women in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, took to the streets on Tuesday to peacefully demonstrate against the prolonged power outage affecting parts of the city. Their protest was sparked by their husbands’ reluctance to engage in intimacy at night due to the unbearable heat caused by the lack of electricity.
The demonstrators, hailing from the Mile 2 and Mile 3 areas of the densely populated Diobu neighborhood, gathered outside the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) office near Isaac Boro Park. They expressed frustration, stating that their spouses had refrained from physical intimacy due to the intense heat resulting from the power cuts.
Carrying placards, the women marched through Diobu’s main streets, including Wokoma, Dim, Wokoma Lane, Obaziolu, Dim Lane, Egbuagu, Azikiwe, and Ojoto Streets, before converging at the PHED office to voice their grievances.
On the placards were different inscriptions like “We lack romance with our husbands’, ‘Our husbands no longer touch us at night’, no light, no payment’, ‘The heat is too much,’ ‘PHED help us to sleep well with our husbands’, and many more.
The frustrated women explained that they struggle to store cooked meals for extended periods, attributing their challenges to what they claim is inadequate power supply from the Port Harcourt distribution company.
They lamented that their livelihoods have suffered as a result, with their businesses coming to a standstill. They highlighted that the areas most severely impacted include Dim, Wokama, Azikiwe, Ojoto streets, Rainbow, Amadi, and Abuloms, among others. Additionally, they emphasized that despite paying their electricity bills monthly, they do not receive a consistent supply of power in return.
“This lack of light (electricity) is making our soup sour. Even when our husbands want to make love to us, the heat will not allow it. We can’t even charge our phones or preserve our food. We are worried,” one of the women who will not want her name printed said.
“This protest is for PHED to give us light. We are paying bills but not seeing light. Our pot of soup is getting bad, and even having sex with our husbands is a problem because of the heat.
“Last night, my husband wanted to have fun with me, but the heat was too much; I could not. We could not do anything. So PHED should give us light, or else we will not pay the bill for this month.”
Livingstone Koko, the public relations officer at PEHD, was quoted as stating that the company had little control over the current power situation, attributing it to a matter of value change.
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