Lekki residents, bank tango over generating set

IT has been several months since GTBank opened its new facility on the Lekki-Epe expressway. Situated between the third and fourth roundabouts on the Oceanside, it is said to house their call centre and the edifice is a pleasure to behold. But that is where the pleasure ends.

From the day the facility’s power infrastructure was commissioned in September 2014 till date, things have not been the same again for residents of the area. There are three monstrous generators in the facility’s power generating equipment and a transformer.

In spite of having installed a dedicated transformer, the generating sets run 24 hours and they have become the bane of neighbours in the area. The pollution is unimaginable with poisonous emissions, noise, vibrations and heat.

After several appeals made by residents to the organization and numerous engagements with members of staff to at least attach some soundproof equipment to the generators for the health and wellbeing of the estate, which is largely residential, some crude silencer system was constructed around the exhaust pipes.

Unfortunately, this has made no difference as residents are still subject to abject misery – constant vibration of buildings in the area and living with lungs filled with fumes, not minding the incessant cacophony of the generating sets like a helicopter perpetually hovering around the area.

The concern of affected residents is if the combination of fumes, heat, vibrations and noise would not in the nearest future do irreparable damage to their health. The bank officials, however, declined commenting on the issue and referred all enquiries to the corporate head office.