•Blackout
Lagos residents are currently lamenting the darkness which has engulfed parts of the state since yesterday afternoon.
The areas hit by the blackout are those covered by the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) namely: Ikeja, Abule-Egba, Akowonjo, Oshodi, Shomolu, and Ikorodu.
The Frontier reports that, after the heavy rainstorm Thursday night, the listed areas were thrown into darkness but the lights returned the next day, Friday.
On Sunday afternoon, the lights went off again and had yet to return.
Residents who spoke to The Frontier expressed their inconveniences and losses as a result of the blackout.
Alhaja Muiyibat (not real names) who craved anonymity for fear of victimisation, said she has suffered so much loss in her cold room business located in Ojodu area..
“Normally we don’t open our coldroom on Sundays because we believe that when we close Saturday night, the frozen items will still be intact till we resume. But quite unfortunately, by the time we resumed work this morning (Monday), all our products had gone bad. We were told by neighbours that there has not been light since yesterday. This is ridiculous. It’s so painful. A lot of money has gone down the drain simply because an organisation has refused to do its work.”
Bimbo Ogundele who runs a hairdressing salon in Magodo also narrated her experience to our correspondent.
“What does this government expect we small scale business owners to do? ‘NEPA’ is not giving light. Petrol is not affordable. For two days now there has not been electricity. How much do I make from this hairdressing that I will now go and buy one litre of petrol for almost N1500? And I will need not less than ten liters to run my small generator till God-knows-when,” Bimbo lamented.
Peter Madubuko, a mobile phone repairer in Anifowoshe area of Ikeja was down to earth with his comments. To him, any institutions which do not live up to expectations should be scrapped forthwith.
In his words, “What is the government waiting for to cease Ikeja Electric licence? As far as I am concerned, any institution which is not ready to provide the expected services to the public should be closed down. It happened in Kaduna today. Why can’t it also happen in Lagos? The masses are suffering too much under this government.”
Meanwhile, IKEDC has explained the reason behind the power cut in a brief message sent to consumers.
The message forwarded this morning read, “Dear Customer, The current supply interruption is as a result of fault on the feeder supplying your vicinity. Our Engineers are currently working to resolve this. Please be assured that supply will be restored as soon as the fault is cleared. Kindly bear with us.”
However, the situation remained the same as at the time of filing this report.
