Worried by their ostracism from the community, the Anthony Omanya family of Awo-Akpali, Ankpa Local Government of Kogi State has appealed to Governor Idris Wada to intervene to end lift the sanctions on them.
Spokesperson for the family, Miss Anthonia Omanya, said the family was being vilified for complaining following the installation of a transformer and running of a high tension cables through the family compound.
She explained that in October 2012, an Abuja-based company, Jumart Joe Nigeria Limited contracted by Millennium Development Goals unit of the Federal Ministry of Works to execute rural electrification project in Awo Akpali, installed the electrical equipment in their compound.
Anthonia stated that attempts to get the contractor to relocate the transformer and cables drew the ire of the community head and some leaders.
She said some youth from the community later attacked the family while throwing stones at them, even as they sought refuge at the Divisional Police Headquarters at Okaba.
The Divisional Police Officer, DPO, had advised the community head to go and resolve the matter and get the company to relocate the equipment in view of the health hazard they posed.
Omanya said; “The advice was not heeded and those sympathetic with our predicament have been intimidated. Since then, no one was allowed to communicate with us, and this prompted us to lodge complaint at the Public Complaints Commission, Lokoja on November 12, 2012.
The equipment are still there and all reconciliation efforts so far have failed, even as the community is maintaining the sanctions and have barred us from fetching water from the only river in the area.
My family is suffering because my father has no son and we are less privileged in the community.
