Residents Protest Ikeja Electric Over Prolonged Blackout in Gow....

Residents of E Close, 34 Road, Gowon Estate in the Egbeda area of Alimosho Local Government, Lagos State, on Friday staged a protest at the Ikeja Electric undertaking office in Ponle, Egbeda, over a prolonged power outage in their community.

The protesters, largely women, insisted they would not leave the Ikeja Electric premises until electricity supply was restored to their street.

They accused officials of the Akowonjo Business Unit of Ikeja Electric, including the Business Manager, Mr Abayomi, the Commercial Manager and the Egbeda Undertaking Manager, of deliberately plunging their community into darkness.

According to the residents, the officials were attempting to divert electricity meant for E Close, 34 Road to serve a nearby Duplex Community and Church Village, as well as three heavy equipment manufacturing companies, allegedly without prepaid meters.

The protesters claimed the arrangement had become a source of revenue through estimated billing, while the transformer serving their area was regularly repaired with funds contributed by the community whenever faults occurred.

They further alleged that the transformer serving the Duplex Community had developed a fault but Ikeja Electric refused to fix it. Instead, they claimed the Duplex Community, allegedly in collaboration with the named officials, sought to force a connection to the E Close transformer.

They said resistance to the plan led to the disconnection of their community from power supply.

One of the protesters recalled that a similar transformer failure had occurred in the past, during which the Duplex Community had been temporarily connected to the E Close transformer.

The residents alleged that it had become a recurring practice for Ikeja Electric officials to abandon faulty transformers, leaving affected communities to raise funds for repairs.

They appealed to the Minister of Power and other relevant regulatory agencies to urgently intervene, investigate the conduct of the Ikeja Electric officials involved and ensure the immediate restoration of electricity to their area.

According to them, power supply to the community was deliberately disconnected on February 6, 2026, on a Friday evening, a move they described as calculated to prolong their suffering over the weekend.

The residents warned that while they had no intention of taking the law into their own hands, the actions of the officials were stretching their patience and could lead to a breach of peace if not urgently addressed.