ONDO RESIDENTS PROTEST OVER POWER OUTAGE
For eight (8) months or more in black out, residents of Araromi communities in Akure south local government area of Ondo state, particularly the state capital took to the streets and paralysed economic and commercial activities on Monday for several hours.
Artisans and Youths in their large numbers trooped to the street and blocked the major road in the area leaving motorists stranded,the Protest, which lasted for several hours forced shops and business owners to horridly closed for business in the areas.
The residents accused the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) of not responding to their complains over the months on the issue of the black out.
When visited the area,men of the Ondo State Police Command were seen on ground apparently keeping watch to avoid breakdown of law and order by the protesters.
Speaking on behalf of the landlord Association, Otaru Jerry Eshimakhe said the community had made several efforts to the BEDC over the outage, however accused the distribution company of insensitive to their plights.
He disclosed that the power Outage in the community has affected the economic and commercial activities in the area, saying many businesses had been affected in this regard.
" We are have been in total darkness for over 8 months now and BEDC has not been responding to our plights.
" Majority of our artisans are closing shops now, why others are leaving the community as a result of the prolonged power outage. We are pleading with the BEDC to have mercy on us and restore our light," Eshimakhe said.
Reacting to the issue, the Business Manager,Igbara-Oke Unit,Mrs. Iyabo Adefemi said the company was aware of the power outage, saying the company was doing everything possible to restore light to the community.
She noted that the Transformer supplying electricity to the areas had been damaged, advising the residents to pay their bills for them to have a new transformer.
" We are aware of the protest by the people and we have advised them in our meetings we had with them that they should pay their bills .
"They are owing us over N29million,but through several reconciliation of accounts ,the bill had been reduced to N11million,they should pay and we will work on the faulty transformer for them to have light. We can't use payments from other community to repair their damaged transformer."
Also in similar vein, the people of Olufoam, Emure that stretches to Abusoro in Akure, complained of ineptitude of BEDC in the area, saying only when the company is collecting money for power not supplied
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