Some youths and women in Omu-Aran, Kwara State, yesterday, staged a protest over alleged five-month power outage and extortion by Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC).

The youths carried placards with inscriptions like "We are tired of your service, IBEDC", "Stop this extortion now," and "Restore our light now or return our money."

The protest was, however, stopped from turning violent by the Police.

According to reports, the people took to the streets as early 7. 00 am chanting war songs.

The protesters marched to the IBEDC building at City Hall, the local government secretariat and the palace of Olomu of Omu-Aran, Oba Charles Ibitoye.

Mr David Adesina, who led the protesting youths, said the community had been in darkness for the past five months.

Adesina said the community had already paid for the repair of a faulty transformer in the area without any attention from IBEDC.
He said: "We have been in black-out since September, we paid several visits and wrote many letters, but nothing was done by IBEDC.
"But, precisely on September 5, we got approval from IBEDC to undertake the repair of the faulty transformer on our own at the cost N300,000 with IBEDC as intermediary and we first paid N250,000.

"When the repair was completed, we notified the company and the business manager told the concerned officials in our presence to clear any other faults before energising the transformer.

"But to our dismay the official immediately energised the transformer in spite of our insistence that they should clear the faults first and within two days the transformers broke down again.

"Since then nothing was heard from them. That is why we decided to embark on this protest to let the world know about our plight."
An official of the IBEDC, who received the letter from the protesters at the IBEDC office but pleaded anonymity, promised to deliver the message to the appropriate quarters.

Mr Oni Adegboyega, a councillor representing Arandun Ward of Irepodun Local Government Area, who received the protesters on behalf of the council Chairman, Alhaji Luqman Owolewa, promised to deliver the message accordingly.

The traditional ruler of Omu-Aran, Oba Charles Ibitoye, urged the protesters to be orderly and promised to intervene and resolve the issue amicably.

"I want to assure every one of you that the community sympathises with your plight and we will take every step to make sure that all your grievances are addressed," Ibitoye said.
Efforts made by NAN to get the IBEDC District Business Manager, Mr Emmanuel Ilesanmi, on his mobile phone proved abortive as calls were not picked.