Residents of no fewer than seven communities in Kwara State’s Ilorin East Local Government Area are complaining about the region’s ongoing power outages, which have been happening there for more than 18 months.
The affected communities included Agbeyangi, Oke-Ose, Panada, Badi, Adelu, and Oloro in the council areas as well as Oke-Oyi, the Ilorin East local council’s administrative center.
Ahmed Seriki, the chairman of the Oke-Oyi Community Development Association, claims that power outages have been happening in the communities for the past 1.5 years.
But after 18 months of power outages, he urged the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company to bring electricity back to the region.
Seriki lamented the circumstance and urged IBEDC to take immediate action in an interview with our correspondent in Ilorin on Monday.
He claimed that the predicament had had a negative impact on local business operations, despite the ongoing economic crisis.
The Chairman of IBEDC in Ilorin stated that the communities had contributed money to buy electrical cables with no success. He claimed that they had repeatedly reported the situation to Babaoko and Challenge offices of IBEDC in Ilorin.
“We have paid the Babaoko, Sango, and Challenge offices of the IBEDC in Ilorin a number of visits. They advised us to purchase cables, and we gave N500,000, but we saw no progress. For almost two years now, our area has been without power, he lamented.
“Many business people relocated to other towns, while those who were unable to do so are living in utter poverty,” he said.
“We request that the town’s power outage be repaired from the appropriate authorities, especially the state governor and the IBEDC. The community’s socioeconomic activities have been halted by the power outage, according to Seriki.
Jamiu Oladokun, the association secretary, similarly explained that there was a time when the neighborhood purchased cables to aid in restoring electricity.
But according to Oladokun, the effort was in vain.
“All the hospitals in Oke-Oyi are grumbling about how much diesel and gasoline they have to buy to run their generators and other essential machinery. We have met with IBEDC representatives at Baboko and Sango in Ilorin on a number of occasions, even going so far as to pay for the damaged materials, but our efforts have been in vain, he said.
The secretary characterized the circumstance as intolerable for the locals.
Jimoh Yewande, a resident, pleaded with the authorities to save them because it’s simple for criminals to operate in the dark.
When contacted, Olori Busolami Tunwase, Corporate Affairs Manager of IBEDC, informed The PUNCH that the company would look into the specifics of the fault that had an impact on the local electricity supply.
If residents of the communities have reported problems to our office, we will look into the nature of the problems to determine what is truly wrong, then we will fix the problems and bring electricity back to the area, she said.
