Residents of Ikola-Ilumo in the Agbado-Oke-Odo Local Council Development Area of Lagos State have lamented the lack of power supply to the community and accused the Ikeja Electric of subjecting them to estimated billing.
According to the residents, the transformer in the area, which was installed over 30 years ago, has become old and is no longer serving the community.
The residents, who also accused the firm of refusing to give them prepaid meters, stated that the IE had continued to issue estimated bills despite not supplying power to the community.
One of the community leaders, Ojeyemi Adedapo, said power supply to the community in the past five years had become very irregular, such that sometimes, the area might not have power for three months at a stretch.
She stated, “The community’s population was a fraction of what it is now, yet the same transformer has continued to be in use. The transformer has now become very old and unable to carry the load.
“Our plea to Ikeja Electric to give us a new transformer is unheeded, while the company has also refused to give us prepaid meters.
“Our community has been in total darkness for over six weeks now and the IE officials say they need to buy transformer oil to service our transformer.
“We urge the appropriate authorities to order the firm to give us a new transformer, prepaid meters and restore power supply to our community.
“We pay Land Use Charges to the Lagos State Government and it cannot continue to abandon us to the unethical practices of Ikeja Electric.”
The Head of Corporate Communications, Ikeja Electric, Felix Ofulue, urged the community to approach the appropriate quarters so that the matter could be addressed.
He said, “If you don’t have light for a particular period, you will still get a bill, because there is a lot of information contained in the bill, apart from the space for the current charge, which will read nil, because there was no light, but you will get a bill because it collates your transactions.
“If members of the community are being charged for power that was not supplied, they can take the bills to the undertaking office serving the community to make a complaint and it will be addressed.”
