The Ijegun Community in Lagos State on Wednesday called on Ikeja Electric to repair the transformer in the area vandalised 90 days ago to save them from perpetual power outage.
Some members of the community told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos that business activities in the area had been paralysed and life had become unbearable in the last three months due to power outage.
Abimbola Alabi, a landlord in the area, said they had reported the case of vandalism of the transformer to IE and their officials came to inspect the damage.
Alabi said: “Since that incident on May 3, the company has not made any effort to repair or replace it.
“We are left in darkness and this is really affecting us in the community.
“The outage has really affected socio-economic activities in the community.
“IE should come to our rescue by assisting the community to replace what was stolen from the transformer.
“We are making efforts on our own as a community, but IE should help us.”
Motunrayo Alabi, a hair dresser, said the prolonged darkness had affected her business since customers were no longer coming.
Alabi said she spends N25,000 monthly to buy petrol and engine oil to power her electricity generator.
She said the petrol stations and roadside sellers were receiving more patronage now from residents who were forced to buy petrol to fuel their generators.
Andy Odogwu, a business centre operator in Ijegun, said that business was no longer thriving due to the power outage.
Odogwu appealed to the electricity distribution company to come to their assistance, adding that some of their tenants were relocating to neighbouring communities because of the outage.
Felix Ofulue, the Head, Corporate Communications Unit in IE, told NAN the company was aware of the outage.
Ofulue said they were collaborating with consumers in the affected areas to resolve the problem.
He urged the communities affected to safeguard the company’s equipment in their areas, adding that the Ijegun community was notorious for frequent vandalism of power facilities.