Some members of Ifedawapo community in Ita-Alamu, a suburb of Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on Saturday threatened to stop paying their monthly electricity bills until the power supply was improved in the area.
The community issued the threat during a peaceful demonstration against the poor power supply in the area.
The placard-carrying protesters with different inscriptions, including “NEPA give us light regularly”, conducted themselves orderly.
The demonstration took them to a divisional office of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) in the area where they registered their grievances over the state of power supply in the community.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria, the Chairman of the community, Lateef Lawal, said that the community had been grappling with erratic power supply for the past four months.
He added that several complaints made on the issue had yet to bear fruit.
He said the only response from the electricity distribution company was what he called “exorbitant bill”.
The chairman said the people were not in the organisation’s office to unleash violence but make their problems known to the authorities, urging the power company to adjust in its supply and distribution.
He told the company’s officials that members of the community were ready to redeem their monthly bill if the supply of power was considerably improved.
Mr. Lawal also called on the company to provide the Ifedawapo community with a brand new 33KVA transformer to rationalise the power supply. He also appealed to the state government to take urgent steps to arrest the situation by coming to the community’s aid.
Some members of the community who also spoke with NAN expressed regrets that the area was not enjoying power when compared to the adjoining neighbourhood.
The Distribution Supervisor of IBEDC in Ita-Alamu area, Bello Sikiru, who received the protesters, described the “insufficient power supply’’ as a general phenomenon and appealed to them to bear with the company.
He said his office had forwarded a report to the highest authority on the state of power in the area.
Mr. Sikiru added that the new investors in the power sector had yet to mobilise them with the needed materials.
He, however, advised the community to submit their letter of grievances for onward dispatch to the company’s head office in Ibadan.
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