Residents of Oladejo and Odunukan streets in the Opebi area of Lagos have accused officials of the Ikeja Electric Distribution Company (IKEDC) of sabotaging their transformer.

Bukola Abla and another resident who identified as Mummy Favour told FIJ that some IKEDC officials from the Agbaoku Office took out two components of the transformer on Tuesday and refused to return them.

“They said that they wanted to work on the transformer and we would have light after that,” Mummy Favour told FIJ on Sunday.

“Since then, we have not had light. They came to remove something (from the transformer). We don’t know what they came to remove. Other streets have had light since Friday, but we haven’t.”

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According to Abla, the officials initially said that they intended to carry out general maintenance. After a few days, the same officials told the residents that they wanted to service their transformer serving two streets.

“The IKEDC officials sent a text message to some people that they were going to do general maintenance on Monday. They did not tell us that they wanted to do anything to the transformer,” Abla told FIJ on Saturday.

“Then on Tuesday, they came to remove the fuse on the transformer and a black box on the pole. They claimed they also wanted to service the transformer. The general maintenance ended on Friday and every other street had their power restored. But they did not restore power to our street and Odunukan street.

“There is no security around that transformer, so these officials often come to tamper with it. This is not the first time it is happening.

“Now, there is a new development. They said that they would come back to carry the transformer.”

Abla told FIJ that the IKEDC officials only told some residents of the area that they intended to take the transformer by word of mouth, as there was no official notice or letter to formally inform the community.

Abla believes that these officials were trying to sabotage the community’s transformer.

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“The transformer belongs to the community development area. Someone dropped a considerable amount of money and others contributed. It was with the funds that we bought the transformer about six years ago,” Abla told FIJ.

“The transformer is okay; there is no fault. These officials have the freedom to access the transformer indiscriminately because it is not protected. There is no barricade around the transformer. This is why they find it easy to tell us that they want to carry our transformer. They want to sabotage the transformer.”

When contacted, the IKEDC told FIJ to provide a postpaid account number, telephone number and a detailed address before it could initiate an investigation via mail on Friday.

The technical operations unit of the Agbaoku office of the IKEDC did not answer phone calls from FIJ. They had also not responded to a message sent to them at press time.