A group of Community Development Associations,CDA located in the border area of Ogun state, under the aegis of Araromi Oke-Odo Area CDC has sent a Save Our Soul Letter to Power Minister,Adebayo Adelabu over the power outage in the nine communities that make up the area.
In the letter, a copy of which was made available to Newdawnngr.com, the communities decried the failure of the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company to repair and or replace the transformer removed for repairs since October last year thereby putting them in total black out with no hope of repair in sight.
Full letter below:
The Honourable Minister of Power,Ministry of Power,
Abuja.
Dear Honourable Adebayo Adelabu,
SAVE OUR SOUL LETTER
We write to Congratulate you on the successes recorded so far in
your yeoman job aimed at improving the nation’s Power Generation,Supply and Distribution in the last eighteen months.
There is no doubt that the increase in power generation to over 6,000megawatts is no mean achievement considering the numerous
challenges facing power generation in this country.
However,we the undersigned wish to bring to your notice the plightof the above named community which is situated on the border areawith Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve Centre.
The above group of communities has a thriving population of not lessthan 100,000 residents most of who depend on constant supply of
electricity to earn their daily living.
However, we like to bring to your notice that in the last six monthswe have not had the opportunity to enjoy the increase in power
supply recorded by your ministry due to the damage done to our
500KVA transformer.
The transformer developed fault in October last year and since thenall efforts made by the 10 Community Development Associations,
[4/7, 8:04 PM] Bro Goffrey 2: The consequences of the absence of electricity to the life and businesspursuit of the thousands of residents, businesses outfit are better
imagined.
Sir, you may wish to know, that the transformer in question,the
cables,the concrete poles and all other accessories were all purchasedby the community about 16 years ago through self efforts in order to
bring social and economic development to our doorstep.
Although,we were made to donate all these to the then PHCN as a
convention, we were still making substantial contributions toward theirmaintenance.
The increase in our population over the years would later lead to loadshedding on the transformer before it eventually packed up about 6
months ago.
Also Read:Ogun govt to distribute transformers across 20 LGAs
Since then we have made spirited efforts for its replacement through
representations and advocates to the management of Ikeja Electric
Distribution Company, IKEDC, whose jurisdiction our communities
belong to but all to no avail.
We also explored the possibility of purchasing another Transformer
through communal effort but the prevailing economic challenges in thecountry have made it a herculean task to raise the money needed for
this purpose.
As a result,we are imploring you to use your good offices to prevail onthe IKEDC to provide us with another transformer,a gesture which willbring Hope back to several families whose source of living has been
removed for lack of electricity and its accompanying grinding poverty.
We appreciate your challenges and contributions towards improving
the nation’s electricity supply but we have no alternative than to appealto you to come to our aid as the regulator of the Power sector.
Good day.
The Ikeja Electric
Distribution Company, IKEDC, supposed to do needful, because they have been collected money over the transformer for the good fifteen years and profits and this is time to standout as good company to the community by providing them new powerful transformer.
Besides, if unable to repair the old transformer and have no power to replace it with new one, then, they should have courage to return their transformer that is faulty back to them, because, it belongs to the community (it was bought with individual communist money).
If the trap can not kill the rat, then it should return the palm kernel (the snare) back to the owner.
My kindly advise, Ikeja Electric
Distribution Company, IKEDC, should do protect their good name the needful NOW, because “A stitch in time saves nine.”
Thanks.