THE Ekiti East Local Government Area (LGA) of Ekiti State is among the areas that have not seen grid electricity for some years in Nigeria.

The Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), which supplies light to the state, cut the LGA off the national grid for over seven years due to unresolved conflict, putting its people in total darkness.

Efforts by the LGA and the state government to restore power to the area have since failed, as the outage unleashes massive blows on socio-economic activities in the LGA, writes The ICIR’s Marcus Fatunmole.

Residents of Ekiti East Local Government Area of Ekiti State said the LGA had been cut off from the national grid since 2014, making the area remain in darkness for over seven years.

Affected communities include Araromi-Ugbesi, Ahan, Omuo-Oke, Araromi-Oba, Ikun-Araromi, Ilasa, Eda-Ile, Omuo, and Isinbode, among others.

A two-term senator representing Ekiti South, Biodun Olujimi and Olufemi Bamisile, representing Emure/Gbonyin/Ekiti East in the House of Representatives, are from the LGA.

The ICIR reporter saw the former Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) office in Omuo, a two-storey building at Iworo, along Isinbode Road, converted to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) office.

Many of the transformers in the LGA have been overgrown with weeds.

The absence of power supply has crippled businesses, even though some people have switched to solar power and use power generating sets.

Many residents said they could not afford solar power to run their businesses; a few mounted the device on their rooftops to provide light at night.

There are also solar-powered street lights across different parts of the local government.

The ICIR’s check showed that many homes in the area use solar power.

Solar power lights are in different categories, selling from about N2,000 to millions of naira.

The smallest and cheapest forms of the device have in-built bulbs producing light after users keep them in the sun.

Medium solar power products can charge phones and power customised fans and bulbs, while big and costliest ones are strong enough to pump water, power fridge, television and other gadgets in homes and offices.

The use of power generating sets has been minimal because of fuel costs in the LGA.

Over a dozen people interviewed said many youths had left the area because of a lack of power supply.

They left for other parts of the state or the country where they could see the light to conduct their businesses or plan their lives better.

Businesses such as fish selling, hotels, bars and restaurants, barbing, point of sale (POS), laundry and welding suffer due to the power crisis.

The problem also affects services in public and private organisations, including banking.

For instance, the general hospital, local government secretariat, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office and the Omuo-Oke Divisional Police Headquarters are among the institutions in the LGA that run on solar power and power generating sets.

Apart from crippling services in those organisations, especially hospitals, a lack of power supply discourages staff from coming to work, many workers who spoke in confidence said.

Staff at the General Hospital, Omuo-Oke, said the facility ran on power generating set and solar power, making it difficult to operate optimally.

Until last year when the hospital got a solar-powered cold room from a donor, there was no way to preserve vaccines and other drugs needing cooling systems.

The hospital uses formalin – a chemical – to ‘dry’ corpses in its morgue, says one of the hospital workers.

“You can imagine a hospital telling patients to come with jerrycans of water when coming because there is no water at the hospital,” the worker told The ICIR when explaining how not feasible it is to use fuel to pump water.

When the reporter called the hospital’s Medical Director, identified as Dr Ojo, to confirm the claims, he told the reporter to call back.

He eventually rejected the reporter’s calls, after the reporter had explained the issues to him.

Parties speak on cause of power outage
Reasons adduced by many residents of the LGA differ from what power firms said was responsible for the outage.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/ekiti-why-senator-olujimi-rep-bamisiles-lga-has-been-in-darkness-for-seven-years/