LAGOS – Mr Rotimi Afolayan, Community Strategy Manager, Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC), said that the company had no resources to replace the vandalised cables and transformers at Gowon Estate, Ipaja, Lagos.
Afolayan said this on Monday at a meeting with leaders of the community as a result of incessant theft of the company’s cables and equipment in the area.
The cables and feeder pillars that supplied the Estate with electricity were vandalised on Oct. 6 and 8 by unsuspected vandals thereby throwing the area into total darkness.
The outage made the community to protest to the Akowonjo Business Unit of IKEDC on Oct. 12 seeking replacement of the stolen cables.
Afolayan said that the management had done a lot to put a stop to vandalism of the company’s installations.
“All our efforts are fruitless because everyday our transformers and cables are being vandalised and this has caused the management a lot of money to replace.
“As a result of this constant vandalism, the management does not have enough resources to replace the stolen cables and feeder pillars,” he said.
He advised residents of the community to arrange within themselves and buy the stolen items so that power could be restored to them.
Afolayan said that the community should send a letter to the managemen,t attaching the receipt of the amount spent on the items, for possible repayment.
He said that there was no clear cut agreement that IKEDC management would be responsible for the replacement of stolen cables and transformers.
Mr Nathaniel Okoro, the Chairman, Community Development Association (CDA), of the estate, urged IKEDC to find a way of clearing traders under its installations.
Okoro said the traders might be conniving with the company’s staff to steal the cables.
He said that the protection and security of transformers and cables should be the responsibility of both the community and the IKEDC and should, therefore, fashion out how to protect it. (NAN)
