By Badagry Today The people of Iragon, a large community under Badagry Local Government Area of Lagos State, have been thrown back into tota...
By Badagry Today
The people of Iragon, a large community under Badagry Local Government Area of Lagos State, have been thrown back into total darkness—again.
After over a year of living without electricity due to a faulty transformer, residents say they decided to help themselves by buying a brand new transformer on loan, with the hope that light would finally return to their homes.
But their joy was short-lived.
Today, they are accusing the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), particularly its officials at the Igborosun unit, of recklessly overloading the transformer by connecting other nearby communities—Javie and parts of Iragbo—without the consent of Iragon residents. According to them, this irresponsible act has caused the transformer to fail once again, leaving the community in darkness while they are still repaying the loan used to purchase it.
Mr. Mauyon Ogun, a youth from Iragon and one of the residents managing the transformer project, told Badagry Today that the community was forced to take a loan to buy the transformer after all calls for help from government and political leaders fell on deaf ears.
“We wrote several letters to EKEDC, to the local and state governments, and even to our political leaders in Badagry, but nobody came to help us. For over one year, we had no electricity. Eventually, one resident stood in to help us obtain a transformer on credit. We’ve been paying back bit by bit,” he explained.
However, Mr. Ogun said the situation turned sour when two EKEDC officials—Mrs. Akilejaye Omolayo and a man identified as Mr. Kennedy—allegedly extended power from the loaned transformer to two other communities, despite clear warnings from Iragon residents.
“That was what caused the damage again. And now, we are back to square one—no light, and we’re still repaying the loan,” he lamented.
“We Warned Them, They Didn’t Listen” — Youth Leader
Another youth leader in the community, Mr. Lasisi Akibu, said the actions of the EKEDC officials have thrown the community into deep frustration and hardship.
“We warned the NEPA people not to connect more areas to our transformer. We told them it would overload the system. They didn’t listen. Now the transformer is damaged again. The worst part is that the transformer has been taken away for repair, and we don’t know when it will come back,” he said.
Mr. Akibu added that one transformer is no longer enough to serve the large Iragon community and appealed to the government at all levels to come to their rescue.
“Our community is too big for one transformer. We are begging the local, state, and federal governments to please give us additional transformers. We’re also pleading with our political leaders to stop turning their backs on us. This is a basic need,” he said.
Some residents have taken to social media to express their anger and frustration.
Mr. Sunday Kuwhede, a community leader, posted on Facebook:
“Iragon community has done their best to restore light into the community, but MRS AKILEJAYE Omolayo and Mr. KENNEDY from EKEDC’s engineering department at Igborosun went ahead to connect power to parts of Iragbo and Javie. That action is what has been damaging our transformer.”
The people of Iragon are now calling on the EKEDC leadership to caution its staff, especially those at the Igborosun unit, and immediately disconnect the extra load placed on their transformer. They are also urging the government to provide them with additional transformers and make efforts to solve the electricity crisis in Badagry communities.
“We are tired,” Mr. Ogun concluded. “We tried to help ourselves, but EKEDC is killing our efforts. We need urgent help.”
Efforts to reach out to the Igborosun EKEDC Service unit were unsuccessful as number of the officials not answered
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