Power outage: Youths chase firm’s manager out of office

A LARGE number of aggrieved youths in Ondo township, the ‎headquarters of Ondo West Local Council of Ondo State on Tuesday stormed the local head office of the Benin Electricity Company (BEDC), to protest the incessant power outage in the community.

The youths, who strongly decried the constant blackout for the past three months in the community, also pulled down a stretch of the company’s fence in anger and demonstration of their grievances.

The company’s Business Manager, Mr. Auta Yohanna and other officials of the company, who had just resumed for the day’s work, were chased out of BEDC premises by the angry youths.

The Guardian learnt that customers, who had earlier arrived the office of the distribution company on Brigadier Ademulegun Road purposely for transaction, were also denied entrance by the protesters.

To forestall unjust charges and rationalize the total blackout in the area, this compelled ‎many landlords in the community to resort into using prepaid metres.

Armed with fresh leaves and stems detached from trees, the protesting youths caused heavy traffic jam on the main street of the community to register their grievances over what they described as the impunity of BEDC officials on the general public.

However, it took the prompt intervention of the Nigeria Police Force led by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Enuowa Police Station, Adekunle Omisakin, to stop the protest. He dissuaded the youths from taking the law into their hands.

The leader of the protesting youths and President of Ondo Youth Forum (OYF), Lawrence Omolayo, while addressing newsmen, lamented over the incessant power outage meted on the community by officials of the electricity company.

Omolayo described the ugly situation that residents of the community pass through daily without electricity, as harrowing, unfortunate and injustice of the highest order.

“The situation has brought untold hardship to the people of this community. We had met with officials of the company on several occasions to address this issue but all to no avail,” he said.

The Business Manager ‎of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, Auta Yohanna, attributed the development to a faulty transformer in some areas of the community.

Yohanna assured that ‎the company would do its best to continually satisfy its teeming customers despite the challenges confronting the company, promising to find a lasting solution to the erratic power outage.

“The outage in some parts of the community also affected our own operations, but this is a big misunderstanding between the residents and the management,” he said.

The BEDC boss pledged that accelerated efforts would be set in motion, affirming that all inquiries and complaints on crazy bills by electricity subscribers in the community would be directed to the company’s headquarters in