Lagos Residents Protest Disconnection From EKEDC’s Transformer

Lagos Residents Protest Disconnection From EKEDC's Transformer

Some residents of Ayetoro, Aguda, Surulere Local Government, Lagos State, on Tuesday stormed the head office of Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) to protest the disconnection of their community from transformer.

The protesters, as early as 10 am, besieged the Marina headquarters of the company, preventing both workers and visitors from entering the premises, thereby causing gridlock around Lagos-Marina.

Mrs Adunni Abibat, Chairman, Ayetoro Community Development Association, said the residents were forced to go the head office of the company because they were disconnected from the EKEDC transformer about 14 days ago.

"We have written many letters to the management of Eko Disco as regards the installation of prepaid meters but instead they continued to give us estimated bills.

"Rather than install meters in our homes, they installed meters on one of the five transformers in the area.

"At the end of the month, they will bring a bill of N25,000 for a two-bed room flat while few people on prepaid meter will only spend N5,000 to recharge their prepaid meters.

"Some consumers are even given N35,000 bills in a month; this is outrageous and exploitative, we can't take it any longer," she said.

Alhaji Jamiu Shasore, a youth leader in the community said the community was co-operating with the management of Eko Disco on payment of electricity bills by all consumers within the 19 streets in the area.

"We requested for installation of meters in all houses and cancellation of estimated bills.

"We agreed that two-bed room apartments will pay N5,000, three-bed room will pay N10,000 but later their officials said the money is not enough.

"So, they disconnected the community from the transformer that supplies us power 14 days ago," he said.

Speaking to NAN Correspondent after a closed door meeting with the protesters, Mr Godwin Idemudia, the General Manager, Corporate Communications of EKEDC, said the company would adress the grievances of the protesters.

"They have expressed their complaints but we are not guilty of all that they have raised; however, we resolved to reconnect them after an agreement reached between us.

"Secondly, we also agreed that due to shortage of meters, we can only meter the remaining 6 Distribution Transformers (DTs) within the next two weeks.

"They also agreed that they will henceforth allow our staff unhindered access to their community whenever we are to carry out our lawful duties," he said.

  The protesters carried placards with different inscriptions: "It is illegal to remove our power from the source,'' "Prepaid meter or no agreement," "EKEDC you can't intimidate us with Police" and "Our mumu don do!"

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Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE

Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner