Perturbed by the continued power outage in Ife North Local Government Area of Osun State, the Osun State House of Assembly has passed a motion to summon the Managing Director of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), the Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC) and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC).
The motion was moved Honourable
Tunde Olatunji, the lawmaker representing Ife North State Constituency in the House of Assembly.
This medium report that some communities in Ife North Local Government Area of Osun State had recently cried out to the management of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) over blackout in the communities.
The six affected communities including Ipetumodu, Edunabon, Moro, Yakooyo, Asipa and Akinlalu said they have been living in darkness in the last four months adding that their complaints and lamentations to the State Government and IBEDC have been ignored.
It was gathered that a transformer, 7.5MVA Substation at Moro, that supplies electricity to the communities had developed fault as a result of overloading.
Moving the motion during Plenary, the Chief Whip of the Assembly, Olatunji stated that it became necessary towards finding a lasting solution to the total system collapse of the 7.5MVA electricity power substation in his constituency.
Olatunji disclosed that six major communities in the council are experiencing electricity blackout for the past four months due to a faulty transformer.
According to the lawmaker, “I moved a motion on the Power outage in Ife North State Constituency and the poor responsiveness of the electricity service provider as a matter of urgent public importance at the plenary today.
“I reiterated the untold hardship the power outage has brought on our people and the poor and unacceptable responsiveness of the distribution company to our plight despite several efforts and engagements with the company on how to repair the faulty equipment and restore light.”
While emphasising the importance of electricity as an essential public utility that every citizens deserved to enjoy, he accused the distribution company, IBEDC of poor service delivery which had left several communities in the local government frustrated and resorting to self help.
He added that despite the takeover of electricity distribution by private companies, they were only interested in billing and collection of tariff and not the provision or repair of the equipments they need to generate the tariff.
“Electricity is an essential public utility and every citizen deserves to enjoy the facility. Despite the take over of electricity distribution by private companies, the poor service delivery of the Distribution Companies (DisCos) has left most communities frustrated and the people now resort to self-help. Our distribution company is only interested in billing and collection of tariff and not the provision or repair of the equipments they need to generate the tariff.
“I therefore moved a motion that the House of Assembly should summon the Managing Director of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to appear before it on Wednesday, 13th October, 2021 on resolving the power outage in Ife North and the motion was granted.
“It is indeed a major milestone towards restoring electricity in Ife North State constituency and addressing the unsatisfactory attitude of the electricity distribution company to the citizens of our State,” he said.
Osun communities lament months of darkness, demand Govt, IBEDC intervention.
The Presidents of Ife-North Progressive Union, Sunday Oyebowale, Amos Adeniran, Femi Ojedele, Adewale Oyebowale, Rauf Oladunjoye, and Femi Odelana, had during a press conference lamented the effect of the lack of electricity adding that it has encouraged insecurity, theft and economic paralysis.
Speaking on behalf of the communities, President of Ipetumodu, Sunday Oyebowale, said the substation is grossly inadequate and requires a total upgrading and overhauling. He said, “It is very sad and very disheartening to note that Ife-North Local Government have been experiencing total blackout four months ago and nothing has been done by the IBEDC to alleviate our problem.
“The total blackout has been encouraging kidnapping of people, as we know that when there is no light, nay bad cat is easy to perpetrate. Non supply of electricity has encouraged theft in the communities. At Asipa community, a shop was looted by thieves who took advantage of the darkness; this same problem had been reported in many areas in the local government.
“Our economic activities have been paralysed as people using electricity to do their daily works find it very difficult to transact their businesses and this need urgent attention so that the society will not become desolate. Ife-North has been known for peace but this absence of light has made it to be a lawless society where different people just come into the Local Government unchallenged at night. Out System Government and the IBEDC must make sure that positive step is taken before things go out of hands.
“People who deal with frozen food business are suffering because there is no electricity to freeze their food and many of them have turned to debtors due to the damage of their wares like fish, turkey and meat of all kinds. Artisans like welders, hair dressers, electricians and all sorts of trades are suffering because if lack of electricity supply.
“We have written several letters to the State Governor and the IBEDC even to their main office in Ibadan but nothing has been done. We are imploring people in authority and Nigeria Government to stand up and assist us so that we won’t continue to suffer,” he said.
Reacting to the development, the IBEDC Regional Communication Officer, Kikelomo Owoeye, said the company was aware of the problem and working tirelessly to restore electricity to the communities.
Owoeye appealed to the residents to exercise more patience, saying the company is not resting on its oars to restore power supply to the affected towns.
“We are aware of the blackout in the communities and we have been working on the faulty transformer, but is yet to come up.
“We have been on it for awhile. It is not that we left the situation like that and the people in the communities are aware of this.
“We appeal to them to exercise more patience, our engineers are working tirelessly to restore electricity to the communities”, Owoeye said.
