Edo community protests against lingering power outage

Residents of Agbede Community in Etsako West Council of Edo State, at the weekend, protested against the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) over lingering electricity outage in the area.

They blamed the prolonged outage on BEDC’s decision to disconnect the community from the Irrua transmission line to the Auchi transmission line.

Members of the community, who staged a peaceful protest against the development, marched through major streets in the town, calling on the BEDC to return them to Irrua transmission station.

Spokesperson for the community, Ogiso Tunde Ogbeide, said life in Agbede had become unbearable as nothing significant could be done without electricity.

He lamented that residents of the community, who are mainly rice farmers, now have to go through a lot of stress to access Rice Mills in the area that now run on fuel and diesel, adding that the situation had paralysed socio-economic activities in the locality.

But reacting to the protests, BEDC Corporate Affairs Manager, Tayo Adekunle, who confirmed the development, said power supply had been restored in the community.