Power surge kills 19-year-old student in Jos

Friday, May 30, 2025 - A 19-year-old undergraduate, Funom Edison has lost his life to a power surge in Rukuba Road community in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State 

Properties worth millions of naira were destroyed while several persons also sustained various injuries from electrical shocks. 

The power surge started around 11 am on Sunday, May 25, 2025 and was brought under control a few minutes later.

According to punch, the electricity power supply by the Jos Electricity Distribution Company had been absent for a while but by the time electricity was finally restored to the area after the people had suffered severe loss in terms of grounded socio-economic activities.

Though many of the affected residents were still trying to salvage whatever remains from their burnt properties in their homes, a resident who volunteered to speak with the publication, Mrs Joy Okpara Uba, described the situation as pathetic.

"What happened to us in this community is pathetic,” Mrs Okpara-Uba, who lost her big  deep freezer and other electrical appliances as a result of the power surge bemoaned the situation.

"Yesterday, I couldn’t go to work. If you enter my room now, the whole place has turned black due to the thick smoke that engulfed the entire room. I had to stay awake throughout yesterday trying to clean the house.

"Even a wake that I was supposed to attend, I couldn’t go. I’m still speechless about what happened, but I thank God that I’m alive.

“I lost all my electrical appliances. They were burnt. The house almost caught fire, but it was the help of neighbours who came with all manner of things to put out the sparks of flames. These were part of the efforts put in that eventually saved the situation.”

Recounting how she escaped being electrocuted, 38-year-old Madam Ether Eche said, “As at Saturday, due to the heavy rainfall, we did not have light throughout the day. So on Sunday, JEDC restored the light around 11 am and everyone was excited that light had been restored. At least, it would enable us to charge our phone batteries

"But before I could reach out to plug my phone, most of the electrical devices started sparking and I tried to switch off the extension but before I could reach out to the control box, I discovered that it was already engulfed in a fire. So, we ran outside and started calling for our neighbours’ help.

"That was when we discovered that many electrical poles were also on fire and some meters in other peoples’ houses were also already on fire.

“Helpless and lost on what to do, but we were determined not to get consumed by the sparks of fireworks, we just started doing all manner of mass disconnection just to make sure that the fire did not spread to more peoples’ houses. Luckily for us, not everything got burnt as we were able to salvage some of them.”

For 32-year-old, Shade, the story took a rather different dimension as she was not so lucky as her mother, who was inside the house, resting was trapped by the electrical surge and was rushed to the hospital almost d3ad.

Narrating how the incident happened, Shade, who had been shuttling between the Bingham University Teaching Hospital where her mother was rushed to explained: 

 On Sunday, after the church service, my mother was inside the house. As I was about to enter the house, somebody shouted that the electric lights were sparking all over. Out of panic, people started running in different directions trying to bring their children out from their homes while others attempted to salvage one or two household appliances or other very useful items from their houses because we thought the whole community was on fire.

“It was at that moment that somebody told me that my mother was inside the house. After struggling to enter into the house, I saw her already trapped by the power surge on top of the electric stabiliser. I shouted and called for help, and within minutes, she was pulled out. I thought she was already dead because she could not move. We rushed her to the hospital. We thank God that she is now at the Bingham University Teaching Hospital receiving some treatment.

The most pathetic case was that of Madam Jonathan, who lost her 19-year-old undergraduate son, Edison, to the power surge.

Late Edison was the leader of the ECWA Teenage Church Center Rukuba Road and ECWA Goodnews Center.  

He d!ed about 2 hours after the service, in which he actively participated 

The deceased was laid to rest on Thursday, May 29. It was learnt that Edison, who just got admission into the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Bauchi, was billed to return to school on Friday before his untimely d3ath.

His distraught mother could not hold back tears as she narrated the incident. 

“I was not in the house when the whole thing started but my sister who was around called me on phone and asked me to call an electrician to come to the house because every electrical outlet was just sparking,” she narrated 

"I said okay, that I would call the electrician but that she should first of all switch off all appliances before he comes. After a while, I called her again to ask if she had done as instructed, and she said ‘yes’ but that the fire was not being controlled anymore.

"I now ordered her to vacate the house with others inside and immediately called other neighbours to assist with the situation. I could hear her telling everyone to leave the house immediately, and the next thing I heard was her shout that my son had been thrown to the floor and had suffered electrocution. Even when neighbours came and cut the control switch, he was still stuck on the ground.

“But before they could do any other thing, they discovered that he was not making any movements again, and that was how he died.”

Meanwhile, the Plateau State government has expressed concern over the power surge incident that wreaked havoc in the community.

In an interview with the publication, the state Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Town Planning, Peter Nyam Gai said he had led a team of government officials to the community for on-the-spot assessment of the situation based on the directive of Governor Barrister Caleb Mutfwang following reports of the incident.

While assessing the disaster, the Commissioner who personally visited many of the victims in their homes described the impact of the power surge in Rukuba Road community as huge, but assured that the government would intervene in the situation to avoid a reccurrence.

He commiserated with the victims over the incident and assured them that the government would do everything possible to ensure that everyone affected by the power surge disaster gets justice and support.