Lagos Community Lament Three Months Power Outage

Mojisola Lawal

Commercial activities are crippled and homes thrown in total darkness as business owners and residents in Ebute-meta (west), Lagos Mainland Local Government of Lagos State lament three months power outage.

The residents alleged deliberate total disconnection of electricity supply to their community by the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC).

According to some of them that spoke to newsexplorersng.com, the absence of electricity supply to their various communities have crippled their businesses and thrown the affected communities into a state of turmoil in the last 95 days.

Omolola Oluwo resides in Apapa road axis of the district.
Oluwo grieved over power outage while also lamenting extortion of residents by officials of EKEDC despite the staggering electricity supply.

She alleged, “It’s been three months of partial blackout in the whole of Ebute-meta (west). Some businesses have collapsed while residents in our peaceful community now live in fear of attack by miscreants who could take the opportunity of the total blackout to unleash mayhem on residents.

In spite of the disconnection and occasional staggering electricity supply, EKEDC, at the end of every month would serve us exorbitant electricity bill for the service not rendered.
We hardly enjoy electricity for up to five hours yet we are being compelled to pay for total darkness.

This further inflicts economic hardship on us therefore we are left with no other choice than to register our grievances.
We cannot continue to pay for services not rendered. We cannot continue to pay for electricity we did not consume because there is no justification for such payment.”
Chairman, Apapa Road and Ebute Meta Electricity Committee, Mr Dapo Williams, spoke on the consequences of the power outage on residents and business owners.
He complained about the EKEDC demand for the payment for service not rendered.

“We have seen the worst of EKEDC with the isolation of residents and business owners from electricity supply” he retorted.
Continuing, he said, “The implication of the 92 days power outage on businesses and prepaid customers are so enormous that all prepaid meters and other electrical equipment of customers have been de-energised.

This is because the EKEDC has isolated the customers from EB One from the Feeder. They have de-energised businesses, prepaid metres and other home appliances without any justifiable reason.
That’s why we are here to show the irresponsibility of the distribution company.

The worrisome part of it all is that in spite of the illegal disconnection, at the end of the month, EKEDC serve the people with satanic electricity bills demanding for the payment of services they didn’t rendered.
They insisted that we should pay them for throwing us in total darkness and crippling our businesses. They demanded to be paid for de-energising their prepaid metres and crippling their businesses.
They are only concern about monthly electricity bills collection but careless about the plight and businesses of their consumers.”

Mrs Muiba Elegbede is a trader in frozen foods. She lamented huge loss due to the electricity disconnection.
“As a result of the power outage in my area, I have suffered a huge loss. I bought goods worth thousands of naira when I discovered that we have been disconnected from the feeder and my generator cannot power my freezer as electricity would. So, all my stocks got spoilt.

The electricity disconnection affected every trader in Ebute-meta including those selling drinks and artisans that rely on electricity supply to work. Officials of the EKEDC are demanding the payment for the three months that we have been disconnected from the feeder.”

To resolve the lingering electricity issue, traditional ruler of Otumara and Apapa road community, High Chief Kehinde Kalejaiye led representatives from the affected communities to a reconciliatory meeting held at the Ijora district office of the distribution to formally complaint about the damaging effects of the power outage in his community.

Kalejaiye, in his demands requested for the supply of prepaid metres and an end to ‘killer’ estimated billing system.

He said, “We are here to express our grievances because it is no longer news that EKEDC has isolated the whole of Ebute Meta west from the feeder.
This has become a general issue affecting businesses and homes in the whole of Lagos Mainland Local Government. We were isolated without considering pre-paid customers who have invested so much in purchasing prepaid cards and the implication of such isolation on residents and businesses.

We need prepaid metres but in a situation whereby they cannot provide the metres in the immediate, they should provide an alternative.
We are tired of estimated billing systems whereby we pay through our nose despite our disconnection from the feeder. If there is going to be any load shedding at least it should reflect in the bill they are serving us for the month.

If they are giving us five hours electricity supply daily, we have to be sure that we are paying for five hours electricity supply for that particular month.
If you cannot provide prepaid metres, we want a fixed number of hour electricity would be supply and that must correspond to the amount payable for that particular month.”

While making a case for his community, Chairman, Ijero Sonola Community Development Association, Mr Babalola Thomas explained the journey so far, “We took our protest to the MD to know what the issue is with the corporation. We got assurances from the management that we would be supply prepaid metres but till now nothing has happened.
We have been engaging with the management for this issue to be resolved. All we kept getting were assurances and promises but nothing has been done.

EKEDC has not been implementing the terms and conditions of the contract they signed with the FG. They have not been delivering on their statutory responsibilities. We have right to transparent billing systems. And this, we believe cannot be achieved through estimated and satanic billing systems being adopted by EKEDC.”

Reacting, EKEDC District Manager, Mrs Vera Ukoh said the isolation was necessitated by residents’ refusal to comply to payment of electricity consumed.

According to her, over 500 residents of the affected communities defaulted in the payment of electricity consumed between March and May, 2022, saying, residents threatened EKEDC officials not to enter into the community.

“They told us not to enter their community and there is no way we would come in and start resolving faults. We can’t come into the community and endanger our lives.

I thought we have gone past this stage. I could remember I spoke with two or more issues on the challenges of your community. I could remember vividly.

If there are issues with electricity supply to your respective communities, rejecting your monthly electricity bills is not the solution to such challenges.

Power supply has dwindled since last year. If you reject your bills, it would accumulate and end up becoming a burden. I have discussed with some people in your communities. Some have even come to us in their individual capacity, we held meeting.

Everybody knows that for the past two to three months transmissions have issues and this has affected electricity supply. This is not a problem affecting only Eko Electricity Distribution Company, it is nationwide because there was an issue with transmission.

But why not collect your bills and if you feel the amount payable for a particular month does not correspond to the amount of energy consumed, we have a complaint desk where our customers can lodge their agitations.

If our customers feel the monthly bill is out of range, they can seek adjustment but for you to bar our staff from your community, even if there is a fault that needs to be worked on, of course, they won’t come in.

All things being equal, if there are no transmission and generation issues, we are on Band D, our daily expectation is 8hours electricity supply daily. But we cannot give what we don’t have. Energy is not static therefore nobody can authoritatively state the amount to be paid monthly by consumers.

The amount payable is determined by the amount of energy delivered. So the amount of fixed amount cannot stand. For electricity to be restored, customers have to show commitment. So that is the summary of what has happened.”

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