A cripple is not easily identified while sitting among others in a boat. The inhabitants of Odo-Oba, Oyo State, and its environs have been living in darkness for a long time due to the lack of electricity supply.
The town was connected to the national grid in 2001. It has, since then, been battling with incessant power cuts.
Following a series of complaints and agitations, electricity was restored by the defunct PHCN but the joy was shortlived as, shortly after, the ageing transformers began to have problems. The sledgehammer was placed on the public power supply to Odo-Oba headquarters of newly-created Ogooluwa West LCDA.
More appalling is the fact that articulated vehicles often run into the fragile high-tension poles along the Odo-Oba/Ogbomoso road. The crux of the matter is that when the erring drivers are apprehended and handed over to the authorities, they are made to pay for the replacement but the replacement is seldom made.
Now, one of the two ageing transformers was said to have been vandalised but we do not know who did it.
The community is now collecting money from house to house to install the new transformer recently donated by Senator Monsurat Sunmonu.
I am using this medium to appeal to our distinguished senator to fund the installation. Our people have been badly affected by the current economic meltdown, hence their inability to contribute meaningfully for the installation.
And to Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, Ogbomoso Business hub, there is the urgent need to restore electricity to Odo-Oba and its environs.
I humbly appeal to Mr Babatunde Fasola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, to approve the extension of electricity to those areas that are yet to have it in Odo-Oba.
- Adelani Olawuyi
Ogbomoso, Oyo State.
and then