Residents of Gowon Estate in Lagos State’s Egbeda region protested at the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company’s office on Monday, citing a lengthy power outage that has left parts of the area in darkness for months.
Protesters gathered outside the IKEDC office in the Ponle neighborhood of the town, demanding that electricity be restored to their houses immediately.
According to them, numerous streets along 34 Road, including B Close, C Close, D Close, and F Close, have been without electricity since October 12, 2025, due to the breakdown of a 500 KVA transformer supplying the area.
The demonstrators also accused the electrical distribution business of ignoring repeated complaints and letters addressed to its officials.
Speaking at the scene, one of the protesters, Oluwatoyin Adebayo, lamented the hardship the blackout had caused families in the area.
She said, “Because there is no light, we cannot buy things to keep in our freezers again. Things are getting spoiled.
“We don’t even have money to buy things because our husbands say we are just wasting money on fuel every time. We are near the IKEDC office; they are our neighbors, yet they are punishing us.”
Another resident, Reverend Tom Omorogbe, claimed he was spending up to N30,000 per day on gasoline to run generators, despite having already loaded his prepaid meters with electricity units that he claimed he couldn’t use.
“We are Nigerians, not foreigners. We pay our bills. Our money is trapped in the meter, and they are using our money to run their business while we are buying fuel again,” he added.
The protesters also raised concern over the impact of the outage on their children and the elderly.
“School has resumed. We want to store food to take care of our children, but we cannot because the food will spoil. Three people have died because of the heat.
“If they don’t do something, we are not here to joke. We need our light now. If not this week or next week, we will lock this place. Nobody will come in, nobody will go out,” another protester, who identified herself simply as Ingobu, disclosed while also chanting “enough is enough.”
The protesters threatened to shut down the IKEDC office if no concrete action was taken.
In a letter earlier sent to the distribution company, the community explained that the transformer went off on October 12, 2025, and that IKEDC engineers visited on October 15, 2025, saying the equipment was faulty and needed to be taken to a workshop.
However, the letter added that after repeated visits and calls to the company’s undertaking, no further action was taken, leaving the entire community in the dark for several weeks.
“In effect, the entire community has been in total darkness since 12th October, 2025, while the faulty transformer remains untouched. All we get are unfulfilled daily promises that they are coming to remove it.
“We are passionately appealing to your organization to please take urgent action on this matter. The entire community of hundreds of consumers, especially the children and aged ones, is in distress because of the situation,” the letter partly read.
In another appeal written to the state government and obtained by Chronicle NG on Monday, locals alleged that the same transformer, which had been renovated, failed again on December 13, 2025, following earlier outages between October 12 and November 6, 2025.
Dipo Oduko, a resident of B Close, signed the petition, which stated that the transformer was over 40 years old and appeared to be in need of repair due to serious technical concerns.
“We are therefore appealing to you, sir, to kindly rescue us from this suffering. Many of us are retirees that had served this nation in our various callings meritoriously and deserve a quality and decent living in our old age,” the petition added.
While addressing the demonstrators, a top company executive apologized for the hardships and assured them that their lights will be restored soon.
“The management was not aware of your communication to us; if we had received it, your demands would not have taken a longer time. For us at Ikeja Electric, we are a reputable organization. It is just unfortunate that this is happening.
“Immediately after this, we will send our engineers there to see the possibility of providing a solution to the problem. The first option is to see how we can put you on an adjoining transformer, and if that does not work, we will give you a very reasonable time limit to see how we can get you another transformer,” the official disclosed.
