Some communities in Osogbo, capital of Osun State, have been thrown into darkness by the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company over alleged poor payment of electricity bills by its customers.

But some of the affected consumers wondered why the company would punish communities for the failure of some residents to remit their bills as and when due. 

Some community leaders, such as Oke-Baale, Sasa, and others, who spoke with our correspondent, yesterday, claimed that officials of IBEDC disconnected them and asked them to convince their neighbours to pay up.

One of them, Alhaji Kamoru Igbalaye, expressed surprise that the company shifted its responsibility of collecting payments to community leaders, stressing that it was wrong for IBEDC to black out communities, including its customers, who are up-to-date in their payment.

“We discovered that there was general blackout on Wednesday. It was later we discovered that officials of IBEDC have disconnected most communities in Osogbo.

We went to their office to inquire why they have to intentionally throw us into darkness, the officials inform us that some customers owed them and that was why they disconnected the light.”

When contacted, the IBEDC Regional Communication Officer, Kikelomo Owoeye, asked those, who have issues, to approach the regional office and see the Business Hub Manager or the Technical Manager for the region.