A staff of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company Plc, Robert Abbey, has cried out over alleged ill-treatment meted out to him by the company after he suffered severe burns from a high-tension line he was working on along the new Airport Road in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
The 37-year-old PHEDC Technical Officer and high tension lines and maintenance worker attached to the PHEDC Gamma 2 region at SARS Road, Rukpokwu, in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State recounted his ordeal exclusively to South-South PUNCH correspondent.
He explained that on October 25, 2023, he and his team were scheduled for night shift, which begins by 8pm. He added that his team lead informed him and other team members that he received a call from dispatch that the Greater Port Harcourt feeder, a 33-KVA line, which feeds the international airport was out and asked them to go on patrol to check it out.
He continued, “Meanwhile, I had already informed the PHEDC Regional Manager. So we drove down to the section along Airport Road, where we call salvation tea off. We were about to isolate it.
“So the team lead now called the Transmission Operator on duty, Damiete, and we were about to go up, asking if we can proceed? Damiete gave the go-ahead. That was how we run it outside paper work (outages).
“I had to go up. I had what is called a grounding device. I went up, teased the line and hooked my grounding device on the line from the source. That is how we do it in case there is a mistake somewhere voltage will not get to you.”
He added, “As I opened the yellow phase and the red blue phase, the red phase remained while my grounding device was still there. The pole is about 24-feet. As I was coming down what I saw was flames.
“The flames were just falling on me, and from 24-feet above the ground I went straight to the ground. I regained consciousness in the hospital.
“When I regained consciousness, I saw Henry, one of the members that the team lead assigned. I asked him what happened because my hands, tongue and my manhood were intact. Actually, if 33-KVA voltage flows through me, I won’t survive because it will discharge around my manhood or my tongue or my hand will cut off.”
Abbey told South-South PUNCH that when he couldn’t get proper explanation as to what had happened, because he had earlier observed every precautionary step, he then lost consciousness a second time at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, where he was admitted.
Noting that he suspected foul play, he said three days after regaining consciousness, he picked up his phone and called his team leader, identified as Jerry, but said the latter had not said anything to him since then.
He said, “Jerry has not told me what happened on that line. The other team member, Henry, never said anything as well. I think it was a breach of communication between Jerry and our regional manager, somebody teased the line somewhere and I became the victim.
“I narrowly escaped death. I spent 37 days at the Burns and Plastic Unit in UPTH.”
He informed that he has worked with the company for two years, having joined in June 2021, expressing unhappiness that the company had not treated him well. He averred that his father, a retired civil servant, has been the one bearing the cost of his medical bills with the support of some relatives.
Abbey added, “Initially I was registered with the HMO-NHIS. The x-raying was handled by the NHIS. Besides that, it was my dad and family members that intervened on the October 26 with bulk money for my treatment to commence with injections, drugs, dressing and my upkeep.
“I didn’t see anywhere that the company, PHEDC, brought even N20,000. Up till now I have not seen.”
Asked if the electricity distribution firm was aware of his condition, he answered in the affirmative, saying, “What they said is that we should go ahead and that every receipt, every money that we have spent will be retired after the treatment. My dad asked where the bulk money would have come from at the point of death if he didn’t go to borrow with interest.”
He further alleged that his regional manager was insensitive to his plight by adding insult to injury by issuing him a query.
He told South-South PUNCH, “My Regional Manager has displayed an extreme nonchalant attitude about the whole thing, because this incident happened on October 25. I woke up on November 1, around 4am, so decided to check my mail and saw a notice of query.
“I said ah inside pains. So I forwarded it to my dad, who now sent it to an attorney. The attorney responded. That was when they knew it was a serious matter. So since then the lawyer has been on the matter.”
Describing the attitude of the company towards him as “extreme abandonment,” he said, while fighting back tears, “If not for the intervention of my father on October 26, I would have been dead.”
Peeved by the development, he demanded compensation, saying, “Right now, I’m disfigured and can no longer do this job I was doing with the PHEDC. I’m feeling cramps from my waist down, my hands are disfigured.
“My job is a higher region. We work under the sun. We work from 8am to 8pm with overtime sometimes. Compensation running into millions of naira is what I want. I can’t put an exact figure now because my dad did most of the spending even while I was still unconscious.”
Abbey also called on the PHEDC management to investigate the incident to ascertain the remote and immediate causes leading to his present state of incapacitation.
When contacted, the PHED Team Lead, Night, Jerry Onyejekwe, expressed surprise over the allegations against him, saying he was not on an illegal assignment, but an official assignment the company assigned to a team.
Onyejekwe stated tersely, “If Abbey said he was abandoned, who paid his hospital bills? I even spent my personal money, about N75,000. The job assigned on that day was not an illegal job, it was an official work.”
Onyejekwe however referred our reporter to get further information from the PHEDC management which he represents.
On his part, the company’s Regional Manager (Gamma 2), Nosakhare Okoro, said though he is not the spokesperson of the PHEDC, he described Abbey’s claims as complete falsehood, adding that he was not abandoned.
Okoro stated, “Whatever information he gave you is totally false. I can’t issue a query. I’m not in charge of Human Resources. Query comes from HR and nobody gave him a query in the first instance.
“PHEDC did not abandon him. PHEDC has been in charge of all the expenses under HMO, our health management system.
“He was never abandoned. Personally I have visited several times and I spent so much money on that same issue. But I will leave it at that, the Corporate Communications department will do their job when you reach out to them.”
Efforts to reach the Head, Corporate Communications of PHED Plc, Olubukola Ilevbare, proved abortive, as she did not answer calls put across to her by our correspondent.
She had also yet to reply to text and Whatsapp messages sent to her as of the time of filing this report…CONTINUE READING>>
