Blackout: Magboro artisans, residents urge IBDEC to stop making empty promises

Some artisans and residents of Magoro Community on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway on Sunday urged the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company to restore electricity supply instead of making empty promises.
They spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria on the heels of promise made by IBDEC to restore electricity to the area unfailingly last week after 11 years of darkness.
NAN reports that the community on the Magboro/Ibafo axis has about 100,000 inhabitants but has been in darkness with business activities on the low in spite of the population.
The community has in the past put up several measures to ensure that the electricity was restored but it was futile.
It will be recalled that sometime in March last year, the communities staged a protest on the busy Lagos/Ibadan expressway blocking the section of the road to press their demands.
However, promises were made by IBDEC to restore power back to the community which was not fulfilled.
The last promise was made in Abuja during the energy summit where IBDEC restated its commitment to restore power to the affected community last week.
However, with that hope that IBDEC will honour its promises, the ecstatic residents and artisans were expectant of the electricity only for their hopes to be dashed.
On noticing that IBDEC is not ready to put action to its words, the visibly angry artisans and residents called on the electricity distribution company to stop giving the community fake hope.
Some of the artisans told NAN that they had been subjected to untold hardships since the communities were thrown into more than a decade-long darkness which had paralysed business activities.
An artisan, who owns a welding shop in Magboro, Kamal Odekunle said that things were expensive in the community because there is no public power supply.
Odekunle lamented: “People complain of our services being on the high side because we rely on electricity generator to power our equipment. How can we make ends meet with this perennial power outage?
“What we are hearing is that the power will be restored another time, it is tomorrow. We have tried all the power within us to get the electricity to no avail.
“Government has not shown enough commitment too, maybe they have the wrong notion that no serious economic activities can happen here. That is wrong.
“If the economic activities are on the right track here, government can come to collect taxes here and we will happily pay. This is a community of more than 100,000 people.’’
The Secretary of Magboro Community Development Association,  Fola Lasisi, said that the community had yet to have electricity due to multiple problems.
Lasisi said: “The power issue with our area is due to multiple problems on the part of the contractor handling the project. We have no idea when all these will end.
“What we were briefed on was that the contractor and IBDEC are still working on the lines in which some faulty insulators were discovered.
“It was reported that the contractor that handled the project used substandard products, so, they are in the process of changing all the faulty insulators used by the contractor.
“IBDEC reported that they have provided about 1,200 insulators in which 800 had been used and the work has not yet finished. They should be around Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church now.’’
Lasisi said that the project would also accommodate other communities on the Lagos/Ibadan expressway, namely Ibafo and Mowe.
He said: “The project is still going to Ibafo and then to Mowe so they are still working on the project.
“The promise made in front of the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Raji Fashola, cannot be depended on because of many underlining factors. That promise was just a wish.
“It is not solely IBDECs fault but that of the contractors handling the project. IBDEC only offer to provide equipment and personnel while the contractor will do the monitoring.
“The contractor must complete the project first before handling the project to the IBDEC to power the lines.”
Responding, the Public Relation Officer of IBDEC, Angela Olanrewaju, said that the energy distribution company had tried to fulfil its part of the project only that the contractor had not.
Olanrewaju said: “There has been some back and front regarding the project; there have been a lot of issues on ground with the contractor handling the project.
“We are working hard to restore power to the affected communities, as for now, I may not be able to give a definite answer on the state of work there until tomorrow.”