Ikorodu communities decry 14 days power outage

Electricity consumers in some communities in Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State, on Thursday complained of living in darkness for 14 days due to power outage.

The consumers told Newsverge that the affected communities include Erunwen, Grammar School, Solomade, and Kokoro Abu.

Mr Karimu Adisa, a resident of Kokoro-Abu, said the outage had paralysed commercial and domestic activities in his community.

He said that the lack of power was unbearable; adding that it was the first time the area is experiencing such long outage.

“This outage is uncalled for because my community is not under those that were listed as going to be on outage due to maintenance work by Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

“We have been in darkness without any tangible reasons from Ikeja Electric.

“It would have been better if our community is among those that are on outage due to maintenance work by TCN technical crew but we are not.

“We believe this is the actual time to enjoy electricity supply because power generation has increased.

“We are appealing to officials of Ikeja Electric to get to the root of the problem and restore power supply,’’ Adisa said.

Mrs Funke Ige, a frozen food seller at Solomade, Ikorodu said that the outage had affected her business such that customers no longer patronised her.

“I am spending close to N3,000 daily to fuel my generator in order to ensure that my frozen food is fresh and actually frozen.

“In spite of this extra expenditure I cannot increase the price of my goods because customers will not patronise me.

“We are selling at a loss due to the outage, IE should come and fix our electricity, we are going through hell here,’’ Ige said.

Also, Mr Johnson Isaac, a resident of Erunwen, described the services offered by the company in the area as poor.

He said that communities in Ikorodu no longer enjoyed power supply since the privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

“The purpose of power sector privatisation has been defeated because since Nov. 1, 2013 electricity supply has not been regular.

“IE officials are just extorting money from consumers without providing commensurate supply.

“Our area has been cut-off from the grid without reasonable explanation still they will send their officials at the end of the month to distribute bills without electricity supply.

“This is injustice and we are waiting for them,’’ Isaac said.

When contacted, Mr Felix Ofulue, the Head of Ikeja Electric Corporate Communications, said that the company was not aware of the outage in the area.

Ofulue, however, said that a technical crew would be sent to the communities to identify the fault and restore power supply to the area.

He apologised to consumers in the area for the outage, assuring them that power would soon be restored to their communities.