Residents of three communities in Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State have lamented over the ten months of power outage in Irese, Aaye and Ikota communities, threatening to shut down the office of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) in Akure over the continued outage.
The people of the three communities said the power outage, which had turned the communities in darkness since February 2022, had paralysed the economic, commercial, and social activities of residents in the communities.
They explained that many business owners in the three affected towns have shut down their shops while artisans who depend on electricity to survive their trades have relocated from the communities.
They also noted that some business owners resort to using generators and solar inverters to power their homes and workplaces.
In a protest letter addressed to the Regional Manager of BEDC, Akure, the residents complained vehemently that the power outage has heightened insecurity in the three towns, causing fear in the area, saying the power outage threw people into hardship
According to the residents, several efforts to ensure the electricity company address their plight have been without luck.
The letter, signed by the Olurese of Irese land, Oba Ahmed Destiny Saka, on behalf of the three towns, stated that the residents have no other choice than to stage a mass protest to express their grievances at the BEDC in Akure.
“After exploiting all avenues of amity to bring sanity to our relationship by reinstalling electricity supply to our communities with no success in view, we have no choice but to organise a procession spanning protests to let the world know of the parlous state of electricity supply to our towns,” the letter read in part.
A resident, Ayobami Toromade, said “the situation is crazy and it is more insulting to members of the communities because no explanation was given for the blackout. BEDC should please work promptly on whatever caused the issue before we go deaf due to the sound from generators.”
But the spokesperson of the BEDC, Mr. Micheal Barnabas, blamed the blackout to the activities of vandals but said power would be restored in the area before Christmas, saying the electricity company has been working round the clock to ensure power is restore in the three communities.
He said “I can assure you that power will be restored in the communities before Christmas. The power outage is due to the activities of vandals and we have taken some measures to check the development.
“We have been working to restore power in the area and very soon, at least before Christmas, the residents will smile, they should just exercise some little patient”.
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