Transformer vandalism blamed on Ikeja Electric’s negligence

Residents of The Exclusives Community Development Association, Teachers’ Quarters, Selewu, Igbogbo, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State, have blamed the vandalisation of their electricity distribution transformer on the alleged negligence and refusal of Ikeja Electric to energise the transformer five months after the completion of its installation.

The residents, who spoke to our correspondent during a peaceful protest held at the Igbogbo Undertaking office of Ikeja Electric on Friday, lamented that the DisCo’s negligence led to the stealing of the transformer’s cables by vandals.

According to members of the community, the transformer was facilitated to the community by the senator representing the Lagos East Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Adetokunbo Abiru, after several failed appeals to the Ikeja Electric to provide a relief transformer to ease the load on their existing transformer.

Speaking to PUNCH Metro, the Chairman of The Exclusives CDA, Akintunde Arowolo, said, “After several failed appeals to the Ikeja Electric to give us a relief transformer, we ran to our senator, who then facilitated one. The transformer was brought to our community on March 15, 2024, and the contractor assigned by Senator Abiru completed the installation of the transformer on April 21, 2024.”

Arowolo added that the necessary tests were carried out on the transformer, and it was “certified okay.”

“Since the installation was completed, we started writing letters to Ikeja Electric and visiting their undertaking office in Igbogbo requesting that the transformer be energised immediately to prevent vandals from vandalising it. But all our requests were ignored.

“At one point, they told us that the transformer needed a DT meter to measure energy consumption accurately, and they were to provide the meter. We continued to follow up with them, but they still continued to ignore our requests,” the CDA chairman claimed.

He noted that what triggered the protest was that “we woke up today, Friday, September 20, 2024, to discover that the transformer has been vandalised and its cables carted away by the vandals. If Ikeja Electric had energised the transformer, those vandals would not have been able to access it easily.”

The CDA General Secretary, Babatunde Sogbetun, also told our correspondent that the community had hired night guards to watch over the transformer in order to protect it from vandals. He added that the community disengaged the night guards after a few months having realised that they could no longer pay the huge salaries the guards were receiving.

“Ikeja Electric was aware of what we did on our part to protect the transformer,” Sogbetun said, adding, “We told them in the letters that we wrote to them that we would not be able to sustain funding the security of the transformer for too long.”

“Unfortunately, it is the customers that will get transformers, poles, cables, and so on with which Ikeja Electric generates revenue, and it is still the same customers that will spend their hard-earned money to secure the equipment. What kind of country are we living in?

“This particular incident was preventable if Ikeja Electric had heeded our cry and energised the transformer. We are holding them responsible for the vandalisation of the transformer,” the CDA scribe added.

The immediate-past chairman of the CDA, Akinpelu Atoyebi, wondered why customers would “always have to go through hell before the DisCo will attend to their complaints.”

He said, “This nonchalant attitude of Ikeja Electric has cost us a lot in our community. I cannot count the number of poles that we have changed by ourselves. I have lost count of the cables that we bought. In fact, there is nothing in our community today that Ikeja Electric provided for us; we bought and still buy everything we use with our own money.

“They didn’t give us a transformer, and we went to the source for one by ourselves. It was the same case with the one we’re currently using. To now energise it, they want us to bribe them. Ikeja Electric is known for wanting to reap where they have not sown. We’re saying enough is enough.”

The community, in a letter addressed to the CEO of Ikeja Electric, Folake Soetan, and sighted by our correspondent, demanded that the DisCo “must, as a matter of urgency, replace the vandalised cables” and “immediately and unconditionally provide the needed DT meter.”

They also demanded that Ikeja Electric has “till the end of this month, September, to energise the transformer,” stressing that “until the above demands are met, we shall not allow your staff in our community for any revenue drive.”

Attempts to contact Ikeja Electric’s spokesperson, Olufadeke Omo-Omorodion, were unsuccessful. Her mobile phone was unreachable, and a message sent to her WhatsApp remained unanswered as of the time of filing this report.