Protests as darkness envelopes Ondo communities for over eight months

‘Tosin Ajuwon, Akure
Residents of Araromi streets and High School communities in the Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo state who had been living in total darkness for eight months on Monday protested the continued power outage in the areas.

Daily Times learned that economic and commercial activities were paralysed in the areas as the protesters accused the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) of not been sensitive to their plight.

The early morning protest which lasted for several hours frightened some traders in the communities to hurriedly shut down their shops to avoid been looted by some youths who are angry by the issue.

Many residents who addressed reporters claimed that the electricity company had not been responding to their complains for over eight months since the outage.

The residents amongst who are youths and artisans blocked the adjourning routes to the communities during the protest leaving motorists stranded.

They accused authorities of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) of handing them crazy bills despite the perpetual blackout of the community.

One of the leaders in the Araromi communities, Otaru Eshimakhe, said that the residents decided to embarked on the street protests after they had exhausted all the possible options of agitations.

He also accused the management of the Electricity Distribution Company of being insensitive to the plight of the residents over the continue total outage the area.

According to him, the nonavailability of the electricity to the communities has grossly affected economic activities in the area.

Eshimakhe explained that artisans who mostly reside in the communities have been relocating to other places due to total blackout.

“The communities have been in a total darkness for over eight months and management of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) has not deem it fit to even respond.

“The majority of people (artisans) are moving away from here due to this total darkness which has crippled economic and commercial activities in the area.

“Again, here we are – pleading with these managers of the BEDC to have mercy on us by restoring our light (electricity).

“We have had enough of them, even with crazy electricity bills, some of us could no longer sleep well at night because of thieves,” he said.

Manager of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) in Igbaroke Oke unit, Iyabo Akinyemi, accused protesting residents of been indebted to the tune of over N29 million of the electricity bills.

Mrs. Akinyemi noted that the distribution company had been patient enough and through intermediary decided to reduce the communities debts to N11 million.

She added that the only transformer that supplies electricity to the communities had also been damaged by the residents noting that it could only be renew if the residents are willing to offset the debts.

“We had held several meetings with the leaders (landlords) of the communities and we told them to pay up their debts. They are owing the company (BEDC) an estimated N29 million but through several effort and reconciliation, the bills were reduced to N11 million.

“So, let them pay these bills (debts) and by then, we shall work by repairing their faulty electric transformer for them to have electricity restore to their houses,” she said.