Rasco-Irawo, a community in the Kosofe Local Government Area of Lagos, has been in darkness for six days since the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) cut its electricity indefinitely.

Residents told FIJ that they had expected electricity in the evening on September 15, after an outage in the afternoon. However, the wait has spanned several days.

Some residents described the blackout as the price for sharing a transformer with a flooded neighbouring community and said they had filed complaints at the nearest IKEDC office, where Ilias Aliyu, a worker at the company, said the disconnection was to prevent electrocution.

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Aliyu was said to have mentioned an incident in Ikorodu, where a flooded community was disconnected from a transformer but one person did the reconnection and it led to an electrocution that claimed three lives.

Olashile, a resident of Rasco, told FIJ that he was part of the visiting party to the IKEDC office. He said power had been stable in the area and any interruption that lasted more than five hours was usually due to a major problem that would normally be communicated to residents via a text message.

Another resident, who asked not to be named, said, “If the water affects the other side, what we told them (IKEDC) was to disconnect them and allow us to enjoy the light. We can’t be in darkness for three months, because this thing can last from now until December.

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“There is light everywhere else but here. The point is that, from what I saw, they want people to ‘chip’ (bribe) them.”

Rasco residents told FIJ that they had attempted to buy another transformer in the past, but were discouraged on learning they would sign an undertaken that it was provided by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

While Aliyu declined to comment, Felix Ofulue, IKEDC’s head of corporate communications, told FIJ that he would address the matter after getting the details.