Communities in Lagos protest 32 days power outage

Some communities in Lagos State protested the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC32-day)’s power outage.

On Wednesday, residents of Apapa Road and Ebutte Metta conducted a peaceful assembly on main streets and sent a complaint letter to the EKEDC District Manager in the region, under the auspices of Concerned Community Development Associations (CDAs). 

However, Protesters marched to the company’s district office in Ebute-Meta, carrying banners with varied messages.  

“EKEDC, our mumu don do, one of the signs said. This extortion must cease, We are your consumers, and we are aware of our rights, Stop distributing bills when there is a scarcity of them and Enough is enough.”  

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Alhaji Mudasiru Taiwo, a former Chairman of the organization, told journalists that EKEDC was just extorting people in the region. 

“When EKEDC supplies energy for three days, they will bring invoices and make sure the households pay the bills; otherwise, the inhabitants would be without electricity for 27 days.” 

“So, when they presented the remaining invoices, we refused them since we cannot continue to pay for what we did not consume.” 

“To be honest, there is no reason for the costs since there was no supply during the month of February.” 

“So, we’re expecting they’ll still deliver invoices this month despite the outage, that’s why we came out to protest; we don’t want a recurrence of last month’s issue.” Taiwo explained. 

Mrs Funke Ilori, a civil worker with the Lagos State Government who lives on Thomas Str., Ebute-Meta, has asked company personnel to remove their wires from the poles because they no longer supply electricity to them. 

“In the previous 32 days that we have been without power, the bulk of us have submitted to fate, therefore I propose that EKEDC come and take our cables from the poles.” 

“What is the use of linking us if we don’t have any supply?” Ilori said.  

One of the demonstrators, Mr Julius Ajumobi, stated the areas impacted included Ibadan Str., Babani Str., Park Str., Thomas Str., Joseph Lambo Str., Ondo Str., Brickfield Str., and sections of Railway Road. 

Ajumobi, a frozen fish merchant, said the blackout affected all frozen product vendors, adding that the majority of them had gone to other portions of the island where electricity was always available.