Pray for us, power utility firm begs Nigerians over Magboro crisis, assures Okeho community of better days ahead
Customers of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) have gone occultic in their face-off with the utility firm as they padlocked the IBEDC isolators in Magboro with ritual fringes.
Platforms Africa reports exclusively that this incident has grounded the operations of the company in the axis and thrown hundreds of thousands of customers on the supply chain in Mowe, Aseese, Magboro, Ibafo and environs into total blackout.
Magboro, an Ogun state community along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, has been in a faceoff with the electricity distribution company.
When Platforms Africa visited the isolator at Magboro, ritual sacrifice was placed at the middle of the isolator area while the isolator itself was padlocked with symbols of esoteric power.
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The utility, which confirmed this development in series of text messages sent to the Aseese, Mowe and Ibafo communities and sighted by Platforms Africa, pleaded with Nigerians to pray for its men.
It maintained that it had engaged residents of Magboro in series of meetings to find the lasting solutions to the issue.
“Dear esteemed customer, we are facing challenges shown above. This affects changing over the isolator point . Pls pray for us . thanks,” one of the text messages read.
“Good afternoon all. This is to inform you that the residents of Magboro inflicted into our operations early this morning by padlocking the isolators with ritual fringes, thus affecting the transfer of supply to your axis. However, management is involved in resolving this situation.
Please bear with us,” the second message obtained by Platforms Africa read.
“Good morning all this is to inform you that the situation is still the same, the isolators are still locked and the sacrifice is still there,” the utility firm said in the third message sent to its customers in the area.
Meanwhile, in response to an online publication over the poor power supply experienced by the communities at Okeho (LGA) in Oyo State, and complaints of inadequate metering and high billing of customers, the Management of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) Plc, has appealed for calm from the affected communities assuring them that the power supply situation would soon improve.
A statement by the Chief Operating Officer of the Company, Engr. John Ayodele said that a 132 KV line supplies the 11 LGs from Oyo town to Iseyin, Okeho, Otu, Paapo, Ago-Are up to Saki, and this puts a lot of pressure on the infrastructure, which is the reason for its poor performance.
In response to this challenge, the Federal Government has commenced construction of a new 132 KV line to augment and improve the present supply. “In addition, we are about to energize the control room at Ogan to enable effective supply arrangement by stepping down the 33KV line to 11KV, this will serve the communities better”. Engr. Ayodele explained.
Engr. Ayodele further said that Okeho is on service band E, which means that they should get an average supply of four hours daily, but currently they get an average of five hours. Also in line with NERC stipulated tariff, the communities are billed monthly on cumulative average of computerized daily supply in compliance with the capping policy.
“IBEDC is a customer-centric organization, and we are working on metering our customers to put an end to the billing issues. As soon as we begin more deployment of meters under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) or any other scheme approved by NERC, we shall continue to meter our customers based on the service band categorization for ease of distribution.”
Engr. Ayodele also pleaded with the esteemed customers at Okeho to remain patient and embrace constructive dialogue to ensure better outcomes.
