Professor Adeolu Akande, a don and former Chief of Staff to the Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi has called on the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, to quickly resolve the crisis that has put the people of Oyo Town and Oke Ogun areas of the state in darkness for the past two weeks.
The don also advised community leaders and youths in the affected areas to work with IBEDC to find a lasting solution to the problem.
Akande made the plea at the weekend in the wake of restiveness in parts of the state over continued darkness in the affected areas.
It would be recalled that most parts of the four local governments in Oyo and the 10 local government areas in the Oke Ogun part of Oyo State have been without electricity in the last two weeks.
The crisis began when youths in the area protested against permanent lack of electricity supplies in the preceding months leading to confrontation with officials of IBEDC.
The darkness that accompanied this has led to further protests by youths and communities in the affected areas.
Akande, who teaches at the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, appealed to the management of the IBEDC to quickly address the lingering crisis so as to return the communities to normal life.
“Electricity has become so central to our lives that no community should be denied this facility. Staying without electricity disrupts normal life, frustrates economic activities and destroys the business projections of investors in communities”, he said.
He advised the management of IBEDC to critically look into the issues of disrupted supplies of electricity in the communities which triggered the problem at hand. He also advised IBEDC to fast-track the provision of pre-paid meters which is creating unease among the customers of the electricity distribution company.
“The provision of pre-paid metres will put to rest the frequent clashes between IBEDC and its customers on the use of bill estimates which the customers always dispute. The IBEDC will ease its own operations and ensure transparency in the charges for its services by supplying pre-paid meters to the customers”, he counseled.
Akande also advised the IBEDC to employ vibrant stakeholders engagement to address disputes with its customers before little problems snowball into big crisis. “Such engagements with stakeholders will pre-empt crisis as problems could be amicably resolved as they emerge.
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