It was a tale of pains yesterday for residents across some local government areas in Oyo State following poor power supplies. The affected Councils are Akinyele, Egbeda, Ibadan North, Ibadan North East, Ibadan North West, Ibadan South East, Ibadan South West, Lagelu, Oluyole, Ona Ara and Ido.
The lamentation came barely three months after a community in Ibadan threatened a mass protest against the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), if power supply was not restored in their area.
The Guardian gathered that some areas have not witnessed power supply in the last three months. In some places, residents said they only have power supply between 12:00a.m. and 2:00a.m. once or twice a week.
According to some aggrieved residents, though power supply may be a challenge across the nation, it appears worse in Ibadan, notwithstanding that the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu came from the area.
Narrating his experience, Biodun Salami, who resides in Felele under Ibadan South East Local Council, lamented that they only get power supply for about three hours a day after which they wait for another two to three days.
Another resident, Kemi Adebayo, said they only have light in Olodo under Egbeda Local Council for 1:30 minutes in a week. Also, a resident from the Ologun Eru area of Ido Local Council, Bola Babalola challenged IBEDC and the minister to deny that in the last three to four months, Ologun Eru was not always left in darkness.
“When they will give us light, it hardly lasts more than 30 minutes,” he said. A tailor, Femi Ajala, who resides at Ajiboye axis of Akinyele Local Council, shared a similar story, stressing that they hardly enjoy power supply for more than 15 minutes in a day.
“It is not only affecting our businesses, but our health because of the heat,” he said, Another resident, Alhaji Bisi Olopoeyan, accused President Bola Tinubu of making wrong appointments, saying that the minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabo is a financial expert and not an electrical engineer.
According to him, former President Olusegun Obasanjo made a similar mistake by appointing the late Chief Bola Ige, a lawyer, as a minister of power, which resulted in total failure until Ige was redeployed to the Justice Ministry.
Olopoeyan said until Adelabu is appropriately redeployed, power supply would never improve because the engineers in the power ministry would continue to sabotage his efforts.
Other residents in Mokola and Ojo Areas of Ibadan South Local Council also lamented that they don’t enjoy power supply like before because of their proximity to the military Barracks in Ojo and Molola, University of Ibadan, and the Polytechnic. Even some military personnel lamented the same grimy power situations in the barracks.
MEANWHILE, IBEDC has attributed the current state of the power supply within its franchise area to low supply of gas to generating companies, among other factors.
Spokesperson for the distribution company, Busolami Tunwase, said the low supply of gas to generating companies has resulted in gradual decrease in available generation into the grid.
She said the development has contributed to the disruptions and inconveniences currently being experienced by residents and businesses within its franchise area.
Tunwase also said that this has significantly reduced the power available on the transmission grid for onward supply to IBEDC, thereby hindering the company’s ability to provide power to customers within the area.
