Residents in Igirigiri Road in Odo-Ado area of Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State capital have called on the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC, to energise the transformer in their area recently repaired by the local government chairman, Mr. Ayodeji Ogunsakin, which cost about N2m. The people who are in six communities, said life has become miserable for them because power outage in the area for over one year has crippled their social and economic activities. According to them, the prolonged blackout has led to mass exodus of residents including tenants from their houses, a development that has deprived them of income as a good number of them who are landlords are pensioners. The affected communities are Ayunbo 1, Ayunbo 2, Ayisola 1, Ayisola 2, Umesi and Akinyede. Elders of the area are calming down the youth who plan to embark on public protest because of fear the protest could turn violent. Addressing reporters yesterday, the chairman of Ayunbo 2 Landlords Association, Mr Amusa Eleso Atobalo, said the last time the beleaguered residents received public power supply was April 16, 2016 resulting from the faulty transformer which packed up. He explained that the Ado-Ekiti local government chairman whose office is located in the area bailed the residents out by facilitating the repair of the transformer while BEDC refused to energise the transformer. Others who spoke with newsmen at the forum included the Vice Chairman, Pastor Bamidele Olatunji; the Secretary, Primate James Adesola; Pastor Samuel Abimbola, Mr. Anthony Aduloju and Mr. Kayode Eleso. Adesola said the community association wrote to BEDC Ado- Ekiti Business Manager on the collapse of the transformer and its repairs by the council boss, saying residents won’t pay electricity bills until the transformer is switched on by the electricity company. “ We cannot be paying for services not rendered; let them come and energize the transformer and if that is done today, we will be ready to pay our bills. It is the duty of BEDC to repair the transformer but they fail to do so but they are now frustrating the efforts of the local government chairman. Abimbola said it was wrong for BEDC to be asking residents who had not enjoyed power supply for over one year to pay before the transformer is energised saying the Federal Government is to blame for privatising power supply which he said had gone worse than when it was managed by government. However, the spokesman of Ado- Ekiti Business Unit of BEDC, Mr. Ilori Brown, maintained that the residents are owing the electricity agency and must pay before enjoying power supply. According to Brown, the BEDC was not aware of the repair of the transformer adding that the electricity company was not carried along hence it could not vouch for the integrity of work done on the facility. He said: “You don’t just energize a transformer like that; it has to be done by those certified to do it because anything can happen if somebody not properly trained to handle it goes there. “We were never carried along and nobody told us that they had repaired the transformer and there is no official communication with BEDC that such thing has been done. They should go and pay what they are owing.
