Ketu protest against five months of blackout

•Protest five months of blackout

Residents of Odutan Street in Ketu area of Lagos yesterday stormed the Ikeja District Electricity Company, IKDC’s office to protest over total blackout in the community and reject electricity bills numbering about 2,000.
They called for an urgent intervention of the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola in what they described as inhuman treatment by workers of the electricity company, saying the IKDC staff kept bringing estimated bills despite being in total blackout for over five months.
The angry residents also lamented that for almost two years, they have applied and paid for the prepaid metres but yet to get any after several months of promises.

Armed with placards of varying inscriptions, the angry residents called on the IKDC management to urgently restore power in the area. Some of the inscriptions on their placards read: “Say No Billing without Light”, “Fashola Call IKDC to Order”; “Buhari, this is not the Change we voted for”; “We want Pre-paid Metres Now”; “Restore our Light in Odutan” among others.
Speaking with journalists, Mr Ayo Badmus, 72, a resident, lamented that the residents were tired of receiving ‘crazy’ bills from the company, accusing it of being insensitive to their plights.
He accused the IKDC of deliberately exploiting them through distribution of ‘crazy bills’, even when they could hardly boast of two hours of electricity supply in a month.
“We are rejecting their bills. At a time when people manage to survive, the IKDC kept bringing crazy bills. Worst still, they are bringing these bills, when we can’t boast of 30 minutes of power supply daily. This is unfair, inhuman and insensitive at this time when the economy is nose-diving. We can’t continue like this,” he said.
A resident, who simply identified himself as Ade,  said that the entire Odutan  Community has been without light for months, adding that despite IKDC’s gross inefficiency, they are fond of bringing over estimated bills.
He said: “Why will some streets have light and while we will not? This is injustice because we pay bills regularly as others. It’s disheartening that the bills the IKDC is bringing don’t correspond with the power supply in the area.
“We are also not happy with the estimated bills in spite of the blackout.  We want Mr Fashola to intervene.”