Electricity Consumers Decry Outage In Lagos Suburb

Residents around Cement Bus Stop in the Ikeja Local Council Development Area of Lagos State have expressed dissatisfaction with Ikeja Electric (IE) over power outage in  their community since 2016.
Chief Toyin Oko-Osi, Baale of the Community, who spoke with newsmen in Lagos on Friday, said that the community had suffered power outage for a full year.
“We have been in darkness for a full year from February 2016 to January 2017.
“It took the efforts of leaders of the community to source for another transformer.
“Shortly afterwards, IE started giving us outrageous estimated bills in the community,” he recalled.
Mr Bunmi Olajide, an elder statesman of the community bitterly lamented the outrageous bills that followed restoration of power, saying that they were at variance with the volume of power supplied to the community.
“Estimated bills ranging from N10, 000 to N30, 000 were being distributed per flat by IE, without the meters being read.
“We met with the District Manager, Lanre Yusuf, armed with some copies of the bills and he promised to do something about it, but as we speak, nothing has been done.
“In fairness to them, from Jan. 2018, power supply rose when cumulatively calculated to ten days, as against the five that was obtained initially,” he said.
Barrister Abdulazeez Adeleke, a youth leader, said that the transformer did not last for long as a result of the carelessness of an employee of IE.
“We know that every transformer has its load capacity.
“However, one Engineer Victor came and began to add some extra street loads to the transformer.
“Immediately we noticed the development, we called his attention to it and he said that he was to be held responsible should anything happen to the transformer.
“As a result of this, few weeks later, we heard an explosion at midnight from the transformer and our ordeal began afresh.
“We immediately wrote to IE intimating them of the development; reporting the self-acclaimed Engineer but to our surprise, we were told he was not an engineer.
“The mini power station at Asade, a nearby community, from where we generate power, had issues which led to us sharing power.
“An act which led to a power supply sharing ordeal of one day on, two days off,’’ he recalled.