Edo community protests outage over refusal to relocate transformer

ACTIVITIES in Igarra, headquarters of Akoko-Edo local government council were grounded yesterday as hundreds of people from the town and neighbouring communities protested alleged deliberate blackout of the town by officials of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) for the past six days over what they claimed was their refusal to allow officials of the company take away one of the two 2.5 step down transformer bought for the community by the council to an unknown destination without replacement.

They said that the Company’s claim that parts of the town and some other communities would be transferred to a 7.5 step down brought to the town under the National Independent Power Project (NIPP) was not acceptable as the said 7.5 transformer’s performance has been epileptic and would prefer the company leave the transformer in its location.

President of Igarra Youths Association, Mike Oseh told journalists that “For over three months, the officials of BEDC have been planning to remove one of the 2.5 step down transformers from Ugbogbo area on the ground that a 7.5 step down brought under NIPP project could serve the other parts of Igarra and neighbouring communities.

But we told them we are not comfortable with that because the said 7.5 since it was brought, have been epileptic, we hardly have light. We had series of meetings at the palace of the Otaru (traditional ruler) and at council chairman’s office where the chairman even told them that the transformer was bought by the council for the people and cannot be relocated outside the council.

But we were shocked that because of that, they switched off the entire town and environs since on Saturday saying because we refused them removing the transformer, we will be in darkness” The palace secretary, Elder Folorunsho Dania corroborated the story of the protesters when he was contacted on phone yesterday.

But when contacted, the spokesperson of BEDC, Curtis Nwade said the protesters were economical with the truth as he claimed that the 7.5 MVA they claimed was not working was even being under used. “I can tell you that categorically that the 7.5 MVA was being used 50 per cent below its capacity so removing one of the 2.5 MVA is not in anyway msichevious as they are claiming.” He said the 2.5 MVA was lying fallow in the place adding that the comoanyhad s imilar case in Warri, Delta state where the youth resisted the relocation of a transformer only for some of the youth leaders to sell the transformer.

He said it was recovered in Onitsha and that the case is currently High Court in Warri.