By Tony Udemba
Hundreds of residents of Igbede community in the Ojo Local Government Area (LGA) of Lagos State recently staged a protest in the area, condemning the many years of lack of electricity supply in the community, no thanks to Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC).
The protesters, under the auspices of Igbede Residents’ Association, comprising landlords and tenants, men and women, youths and the elderly, marched peacefully from street to street to the major road leading into the community, crying out to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to urgently come to their rescue.
The group displayed placardd with various inscriptions such as: “Gov. Sanwo-Olu save Igbede community from perennial darkness”, “Gov Sanwo-Olu come to our rescue”, “Sanwo-Olu repair our roads”, “Enough is enough; and EKEDC give us light,” etc, as they marched singing solidarity songs.
Addressing reporters during the protest, the leader of the group, Mr. Vincent Offordum, recalled the challenges confronting the community for many years, ranging from the total collapse of access roads to the failure of EKEDC to restore electricity in the community, among others.
He stated that for the greater part of over 21 years that he had lived in the area, residents had resorted to self-help by contributing funds and materials for the maintenance of the roads, without any help from the Lagos State and Ojo local governments.
He noted that, in 2002 and 2003, the community upon the directives from certain government officials, paid some funds to the government in order to officially have a file opened in the name of the community at the government secretariat, Alausa, with the hope to easily attend to its needs through the said file.
“Then the government officials promised that the Lagos State would construct our roads. And, on a number of times, engineers from Government House even visited our community to carryout surveys. This was later to be followed by many years of unending delays and government bureaucracy.
“Regrettably, many years down the line, successive governments have done nothing to ameliorate our suffering. Igbede community has been neglected and abandoned and left on its own to suffer with no help in sight,” he said.
He reminded the Lagos State government that members of the community, as good citizens, had never defaulted in the payment of tenement rates for their buildings and other government levies and taxes.
His words: “For many decades, we have continued to demonstrate our responsibilities as good citizens of the state in the timely payment of tenement rates for our buildings and levies for our business premises, apart from the payment of other government taxes and rates”.
Offodu lamented that for over four years, the community has suffered total electricity blackout in the hands of officials of EKEDC, adding that the company has continued to collect revenues from the community monthly. He said EKEDC has refused to restore electricity to the community despite the people’s numerous complaints.
“The worst of it is the crazy bills they send to us even for electricity that was not supplied. The community has suffered a lot in the hands of EKEDC,” he said.
He noted that owing to the perennial power outage in the area, many businesses had closed down, and many tenants had relocated to other areas, while some landlords had equally abandoned their buildings and left the community.
He appealed to the governor to urgently come to their rescue, saying: “I am making a passionate plea to Sanwo-Olu to urgently repair Igbede roads and save the community from being cut off from neighbouring communities.
“Also, I am appealing to the governor to extend necessary infrastructure to the area. I call on the governor to compel EKEDC to restore electricity to our community and to also give us pre-paid metres.We say no to estimated and crazy bills, even as we will no longer tolerate it, henceforth”.
A resident of the community, Chief Lewis Nwude, expressed sadness over the bad roads in the area, saying: “it saddens me that our once lively community has descended this low without any passable roads. As responsible citizens, we have supported the government during elections and by paying tenement rates and levies.
“I could remember during the last council elections, the Ojo LGA chairman campaigned here, seeking our support. He promised to repair our roads and we voted massively for him. It’s unfortunate that since he has been in office, nothing has been done to rehabilitate our roads or bring any meaningful development to the area.
“Roads in Igbede have become a nightmare as schoolchildren and passengers are occasionally thrown off motorbikes and tricycles into gullies, gutters and collapsed sections of the roads”.
Another resident, Kelechi Ugboh, lamented that it was wrong for the distribution company to refuse giving them pre-paid metres, preferring to send crazy bills to them. According to him, “every month, EKEDC collects between N7,000 and N10,000 from the least household such as a room apartment, yet no electricity will be supplied. This can no longer be acceptable to the residents of this community.
Also, the leader of the Arewa community in the area, Alhaji Isiaka Haruna, noted that for many years now people living in the area had continued to suffer from lack of electricity supply, collapsed access roads and lack of infrastructures.
“Our situation is like people who are inside a cage,” he said.
Another resident, Alhaji Balogun, drew the attention of the state government and Ojo local governments, to the long suffering of residents of the area and called on them not to abandon the community.
“We don’t have electricity supply, no motorable roads. Igbede community is now caught off from other communities due to bad roads. A journey of less than 10 minutes from Igbede to Alaba International market, now takes an average of 45 minutes to make due to bad roads”, he lamented.