RESIDENTS of Redeemed in the Alagbado community in the Agbado-Oke Odo Local Community Development Area, in Lagos has appealed to Ikeja Electric (IE), to urgently repair the damaged transformer that supplies electricity to the area.

They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews that life in the area was becoming unbearable due to the total blackout caused by the faulty transformer.

Mr Ishola Kareem, a landlord in the area, said that the transformer which was located at Redeemed Bus Stop was recently repaired by officials of Ikeja Electric.

“Before the end of 2017, members of the community contributed over N1million to repair the transformer because IE staff said they did not have the required replacement parts in their Stores.

“Unfortunately, not up to three months now, the transformer is not working again.

“We have complained about this fault to the nearby office of IE again and they are still requesting for money before they will touch the burnt transformer.

“Why are they requesting for money when we are paying our electricity bills regularly.

“Repairing a burnt transformer should be part of their responsibility and not ours. Must we pay for damaged transformers too?’’ he asked.

Kareem said that the community had been in outage for over two weeks, adding that IE should repair the transformer on time, without charging the residents.

He said that it was disheartened to see other neighbouring communities enjoying electricity during Easter, while their community was in darkness.

Mr Toyese Alani, a resident of Church Street, in the area, said that the youths in the community have, however, resorted to collecting money from house- to-house, to repair the transformer.

According to Alani, this is not supposed to be, when we pay our bills as-and-when due.

He recalled that the bank account of the Community Development Association (CDA) was emptied in 2017 to repair and relocate the transformer as a result of road construction in the area.

Mr Dayo Niniola, a Cyber-Cafe operator in the area, said the outage had affected his business as customers no longer patronised his business centre.

Niniola said he spent N2, 500 to fuel his generator daily, to attract customers to his shop because of the two weeks of outage.

He appealed to officials of IE to rectify the fault so that his business would bounce back and normalcy would return to the area.

Efforts to get the Head, Corporate Communications Unit of IE, Mr Felix Ofulue, to respond to the allegation were fruitless, as phone calls and messages sent to his telephone line remained unanswered. (NAN)

– Mar. 31, 2018 @ 4:30 GMT |