It has not been a thing of joy to the residents and business owners of Ojodu, Akiode and Berger areas in Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos and environs, as they have been thrown into total blackout for six days running.
The power outage which started on Wednesday has remained as at the time of filing this report today.
According to a resident who spoke to our correspondent, the intriguing thing about the whole matter is that “NEPA” has not said anything about the power outage up till this afternoon.
“It was exactly a week ago, Monday, January 27 that Ikeja Electric Distribution Company sent a message to us that there was a planned outage in the area, to enable preventive maintenance, which would be restored as soon as the maintenance work was through,” said Pastor Cosmas (real name withheld by us), an executive member of the Community Development Association (CDA) in the affected area.
Continuing the cleric said, “But up till this very moment (today, Monday February 3, 9.30am), the blackout has persisted.”
The message from Ikeja Electric Distribution Company (IKEDC) which was sighted by The Frontier read, “Dear Customer, There is a planned outage on the Feeder supplying your vicinity to enable our engineers to carry out Preventive Maintenance. Date: Monday, 27th, January 2025. Please be assured that the supply will be restored once the maintenance is completed.”
The above message from IKEDC was like a pointer to what would befall the areas in the next two days.
The Frontier gathered that, in the morning of Wednesday, January 29, there was power disruption in the said areas of Lagos, which has remained till date, apart from a flash last Saturday.
At the beginning of the outage, IKEDC sent another message to the CDA, claiming that the problem was caused by cable fault at the station of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
“Dear Customers, the current outage is as a result of Cable fault at TCN STATION. All stakeholders are working to ensure that this issue is resolved as early as possible. We are trying to go to d point of cable cut,” stated the SMS.
Almost a week after, residents of the affected areas claim the authorities concerned have been mum about the outage.
TCN headed by Dr. Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz is responsible for operating, expanding/upgrading transmission facilities for efficient and effective wheeling of generated electricity.
Speaking with our correspondent today, residents and business owners in the affected areas lamented what the 6-day outage has caused them, with no solution in sight.
For Tobi, a business center operator, it has not been easy running his business since the outage started last week.
“It has been very difficult for me and my business. I spend N10,000 on petrol to power my small generator every day. It’s six days already, multiply that by the money. I mean, what is my profit margin that I have to spend that much everyday? The authorities should do something about the blackout as a matter of priority,” said Tobi.
A housewife, Mrs Patience Ude also had tales of woe concerning the outage. “The weekend before that Wednesday, I had prepared two pots of soup and a pot of stew for the family to last for a week as usual. And then the outage came. It is six days now. As at yesterday (Sunday), everything I stored in the freezer has gone bad. We all know the pump price of petrol, for how long can one really run the generating set to preserve things?” She lamented.
Similarly, owners of small scale businesses such as hairdressing salons, Cold room, beer palours and others who spoke with our correspondent also complained bitterly about the total blackout in the said areas.
Effort made by The Frontier to speak to TCN using its official telephone line was not successful as the programmed voice said repeatedly, “The Glo customer you are calling cannot be reached at the moment, please try again later.”
Also, messages sent to IKEDC by email and the company’s official complaint app were yet to be responded to at the time of filing this report.
