RESIDENTS of Liberty Community in Idimu, Ikotun area of Lagos State, have pleaded to Ikeja Electric not to set their community on fire due to the shortage of power supply in the community, spanning over a seven-month period, because of an inoperative allocation of transformers in the community.
The community leaders accused Ikeja Electric, the power provider to that area of not being sympathetic to their plight, leaving them to suffer the hardship brought about by the lack of power supply.
They alleged that rather than providing an extra transformer, Ikeja Electric asked each house in the 11 streets that make up the community to pay N10,000 to buy one.
The streets are Adewale Ifade, Mudashina, Salimon Ayinde, Fatimo Olowo, Muritala, Ayilara, Adelokun, Rasaq Tijani, Helen Ajayi, Ajewole and Asungbolu streets.
The Head, Corporate Communications of Ikeja Electric, Felix Ofulue, however, said that the allegations are unfounded and baseless, lacking merit and substance with prevailing realities on the ground.
“The allegation of N10, 000 contribution is bogus if the community cannot provide the names of the IE officials who made the request. Where is the justification?
“The real situation is that Oladunmoye 11/0.415 DT wrote to Ikeja Electric requesting for a relief Distribution Transformer (DT), on the grounds that they have been on load shedding for about 10 years.
“They also complained of incessant faults on the DT. Upon receiving their request, the Business Unit carried out major maintenance work on the DT, with the intention of drastically reducing the fault rate on it. Sequel to completion of the maintenance work, efforts to restore supply to the community was officially rejected via written letters.
“Despite the persuasion by the Management of the Business Unit for them to allow IE restore supply while we work around providing a relief DT, the community has remained adamant till date that it’s either a relief DT or no supply.
“However, providing a relief DT to the community is a priority and will be sorted as quickly as possible.”
(Source: Vanguard)