Youths in Owode-Egba in the Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State, on Monday protested against six months power outage in the community.
The youth, who staged the protest under the aegis of the Owode-Egba Youths Development Movement, carried placards with various inscriptions, including, ‘End darkness in Owode-Egba’, ‘We are tired of darkness in Owode-Egba’, ‘We say no to estimated billing’, ‘IBEDC is killing our business’, and ‘IBEDC light up Owode-Egba’.
The protesters, who were drawn from 32 areas in the town, walked through major streets and sang protest songs.
The group, who also took their protest to the palace of the Olu of Owode-Egba, Oba Kolawole Sowemimo, and the headquarters of the council, accused the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company of turning deaf ears to their pleas.
The President of the Owode-Egba Youth Development Movement, AbdulFatai Shoneye, said the main injection power transformer that supplied electricity to their community got burnt in August 2020.
He lamented that efforts to ensure that the transformer was replaced by the distribution company failed to yield any result.
Shoneye explained that since the community was thrown into darkness, IBEDC had not come out with any official position. He added that business in the town had suffered, while criminals had been terrorising residents as a result of the blackout. (Punch)