15 Ekiti communities protest two years of electricity black out

Residents of Omuo Ekiti, headquarters of Ekiti East local government area of Ekiti state on Tuesday sent a passionate appeal to the Ekiti state government to intervene in the power crisis facing virtually all towns in the LGA since more than a year ago.

A community leader,Mr. Adegbuyi Ayodele told journalists in Ado Ekiti that more than 15 communities making the local government, including some villages were affected by the blackout for about two years, thereby making life difficult for residents and paralysing their businesses.

Adegbuyi listed the affected towns to include Omuo, the council headquarters, Kofa, Ilada, Eda- Ile, Isinbode, Araromi and Ikun Ekiti among others.

According to him, several artisans who rely on electricity to power their machines are now finding it difficult to cope with life as their sources of income had been negatively affected by the blackout.

He claimed that the crisis was made worse as street light erected by the state government on the recently dualised road in Omuo Ekiti which currently serves as the only succur left for the community was being powered from the palace generator.

He said when approached for explanation on the sudden cut in power to the entire local government communities for over a year now, authorities of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company,(BEDC) demanded for payment if N78m being unpaid bills allegedly incurred during the pre- privatisation of the power sector but which was inherited by the new power managers as liability.

The community explained that when all attempts by the affected communities to raise the huge sum from any of the federal and state elected as well as those appointed political office holders yielded no result, the leaders imposed a levy of N5,000 per each household, but doubted if the whole money could be realised in time so that residents could feel a sigh of relief.

The Public Relations Officer of the BEDC in the state, Mr. Kayode Ilori Brown who although could not pick his phone when contacted had earlier said, such a development was usually associated with non result of non payment of bills by the affected community.