KEY POINTS
- Residents of Waterfront Estate, Sekumade Estate, and NBC Community protested an eight-month electricity outage, blocking Ikeja Electric’s Ikorodu office.
- The blackout, caused by a faulty transformer, has disrupted households, businesses, and local economic activities, forcing reliance on expensive generators.
- Ikeja Electric promised to fast-track repairs, citing 300 transformers awaiting attention, and pledged to provide a detailed restoration timeline on March 5.
Residents of Waterfront Estate, Sekumade Estate, and the NBC Community in the Ebute area of Ikorodu Local Government Area, Lagos State, took to the streets on Friday to protest a power outage that has lasted for eight months.
The communities have been experiencing power outage since August 2025 after the only transformer serving the area developed a fault. Frustrated by the long delay in repairs, the protesters marched to the Ikorodu Business District office of Ikeja Electric and blocked the entrance, halting movement in and out of the premises for several hours.
Protesters Express Frustration Over Ikeja Electric’s Delays
The residents carried placards with messages like “IKEDC! You are meant to be an agent of light, not darkness” and “Eight months without power is enough, restore our electricity.” Moshood Aderibigbe, a community representative, said the Power outage had severely disrupted economic and household activities.
He revealed that previous meetings with Ikeja Electric officials over the power outage produced no tangible results, leaving residents dependent on costly generators for electricity. Artisans, traders, and small business owners have reported significant financial losses due to the outage.
Tensions rose during the power outage protest when residents demanded to meet with the district’s Business Manager, who only briefly appeared and left without addressing their concerns. Calm was restored when a senior Ikeja Electric official later spoke to the crowd, explaining that repairing or replacing damaged transformers follows strict procedures, and approximately 300 faulty transformers across Ikorodu are awaiting attention.
The official assured residents that the process would be fast-tracked and that representatives of the affected communities would be engaged on March 5 to provide a clearer timeline for restoring power.
