- Osun government intervenes, seeks urgent stakeholders’ meeting
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Some angry residents in Osogbo on Friday stormed one of the offices of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company with casket in protest against the disconnection of electricity to about 50 communities.
It was gathered that the company decided to throw the affected communities into darkness over alleged non-payment of outstanding bills by some of its customers.
But the protesting electricity consumers faulted IBEDC for cutting supply to the communities from its feeders notwithstanding that a good number of them paid their electricity bills up till date.
The affected power consumers wondered why the company would punish the entire communities for the failure of some residents to remit their bills as and when due, adding that there are people who are prepaid users and not owing the company.
Consequently, some angry residents brought a white casket to one of the IBEDC’s offices at Station Road and placed it at the gate.
The workers at the building hurriedly shut the gate to prevent the protesters from gaining access to the premises, thus paralysing activities in the office.
Some electricity consumers who visited the office to make payments at about 10:30am had to turn back as there was no staff to attend to them.
The protesters also moved to the IBEDC Regional Office, at First Bank area in Osogbo and demanded that electricity be restored to the affected communities while the company should strategise on better ways to ensure that defaulters pay their bills.
Before the rampaging residents could move to the main office, about six different teams of police operatives stormed the area in order to prevent the break down of law and order.
Speaking to one of the affected residents, Dapo Onanuga from Ayegbami, Ororuwo community in Osogbo, he condemned the approach of the power distribution company, saying if they lacked capacity to make their customers pay their debts, there are better ways to go about it.
Onanuga said, “Something like this happened within the last Ramadan festival and it was resolved the next day and we never thought it would happen again. We felt like how can you put both the postpaid and the prepaid users into same category. It’s not done anywhere because those on prepaid have paid you, in fact, they are yet to use their own light and you have disconnected light from the transformers.
“We came here to let them know our plights and they said no, they gave us a list of debtors and that we should start demanding bills from those who are owing them. We said no because we are not your staff and we don’t even have any right to go to any place and ask people to pay, they are the ones that should do that. I told them that they need to spend money on monitoring and if they can’t trust their staff because there are some saboteurs among them, they can outsource. They can’t just make all suffer for the failure of some few,” he added.
Other aggrieved residents who spoke, including a businessman, Azeez Wahab, who expressed similar concerns.
Efforts to speak with the Regional Manager proved abortive as he was not available for interview.
It was learnt that electricity had been restored to most of the affected communities after the protest.
Meanwhile, Osun State government said it has intervened in the ongoing crisis between IBEDC and some communities in Osogbo, calling for an urgent stakeholders’ meeting on the disconnection of parts of the state capital from power supply.
A statement issued by Olawale Rasheed, spokesperson to the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, reads, “The State Government hereby calls on the two parties to consider an alternative dispute resolution method, as the blackout might also lead to increase in insecurity among the affected communities and shutdown of business activities.
“Such blackouts might also have a negative impact on the upcoming celebration of Eid El Kabir.
“The IBEDC is encouraged to reconnect the communities to power supply while an immediate solution is found to the question of huge debt owed by the affected communities.
“The State Government is also concerned about the likely breakdown of law and order, as there are pockets of protests from the affected communities. Immediate resolution of the issue will put an end to the ongoing protests. We cannot afford to allow such protests to be hijacked by unscrupulous elements in pursuance of their nefarious activities.
“We are committed to brokering a peaceful negotiation between the management of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, and the stakeholders from the affected communities.”
