SOME residents of Gowon Estate in Lagos have decried the discriminatory supply of electricity to the community and called on the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) to stop the practice.

The residents expressed their displeasure in a letter to the Chief Executive of the company, a copy of which was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday.

The affected residents living in the North CDA Area of the estate said that they barely enjoyed electricity for six hours “on a good day”, while the adjoining communities enjoyed between 14 and 24 hours of electricity supply daily.

“We are aware that Bola Tinubu Market which is on the Akowonjo Feeder just as we are, enjoy 24 hours supply while it’s surrounding areas on the same feeder enjoy a minimum of 14 hours supply,” they claimed.

The residents said that in a bid to tackle the problem, the community members once raised a delegation to meet with the management team of Akowonjo Business Unit (BU) of IKEDC to express their grievances.

They alleged that the delegation, in agreement with the Business Manager (BM) of Akowonjo unit, decided to meet in the office of the BM on Oct. 30, 2018, but the meeting was later called off by the BM.

“Another meeting was later called for and agreed upon by the BM, who was represented by his HMO and CM due to his absence.

“All the tentative agreements reached at the meeting which were to be ratified by the BM were never implemented.

“Follow up meetings with the BM never held and all efforts to elicit a reason for this situation proved abortive.

“Another emergency meeting was called for by the community to discuss the way forward and it was resolved that the management team responsible for the issue at hand be invited for another community meeting scheduled for Feb. 1.

“The meeting was to allow the community members have an interface directly with Akowonjo Business Unit of IKEDC to find a lasting and sustainable solution to the problem, but again nobody from the BU showed up.

“As a result of the non-responsive attitude, the community resolved that a letter be written to the Akowonjo business unit of IKEDC to intimate them about the ongoing issues.

The residents said that the letter was also to inform the office that the patience of the community with the business unit had been overstretched.

“The present supply situation is no longer acceptable to the community.

“A notice of 14 days was given for the situation to be remedied and a meeting be scheduled by the business unit to hold in the community to discuss an improved sustainable supply to the community.

“The community has resolved that at the expiration of 14 days on Feb. 18, if no concrete action is taken by the business unit to remedy the situation, the community would explore whatever options are available to them.” (NAN)

– Feb. 13, 2019 @ 15:35 GMT |