Residents of Ugbiyoko Community in the Egor Local Government Area of Edo State, stormed the headquarters of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company on Monday to protest against prolonged power outage in the area.
It was learnt that the over 70 electricity consumers, comprising men,
women and youths, marched to the firm located on Akpakpava Road as early as 4am with placards, one of which read, “We are tired of blackout.”
When our correspondent got to the scene of the protest, some of the protesters were seen treating themselves to a meal, which they prepared in front of the company.
They also shut out some employees of the BEDC and vowed to continue the protest until the management of the company responded to their demand.
Some security operatives were, however, at the scene to prevent the aggrieved residents from grounding traffic in the area.
Our correspondent gathered that the community had been out of power supply for about three months due to a faulty transformer, which was said to have been taken away by the distribution company.
The protesters said they had yet to be given another transformer in replacement of the one taken away, and had therefore been cut out of power supply, which had affected livelihoods of residents in the community.
They said they had provided copies of their electricity bills and brought other documents to register their grievance, but had yet to get any result.
The residents, however, vowed to continue the protest until a new transformer was provided for them.
One of the protesters, who identified herself simply as Mrs. Odogwu, said, “For the past three or four months, the transformer that was in our community was bad and they took it away. Are they not supposed to bring a new one to the place?
“We are tired. If you see the bodies of our children now, they are full heat rashes. Our fridges have turned to cupboards because there is no electricity and yet, they still demand N750 fixed charge. They must give us the transformer today.”
But the acting Head, Corporate Affairs, BEDC, Mr. Curtis Nwadie, explained that the faulty transformer in the community was overloaded due to double-feeding by some of the residents.
Nwadie added that the company had approved two transformers for the area, saying that it was also probing electrical connections in the community to avoid a recurrence.
He said, “In that area, there were actually two transformers and people were double-feeding from the 33KV and 11KV lines, which is not good.
“Because of that, the transformers failed and were taken away. It was in the process of making the necessary arrangement for them that they (residents) ran out of patience.
“It would be foolhardy for us to take transformers to that same place without taking care of customers who were double-feeding.
“Two transformers have been approved for them. But we have to take the necessary measures in finding out what killed the previous one, so that resources will not be wasted.”
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