Some residents and traders in Ojodu Berger, Lagos, had to grapple with a power blackout between Sunday and Wednesday. While none of the sources FIJ spoke with in the Grammar School and Just Rite areas of Ojodu could pinpoint the exact cause of the power outage, they all bemoaned the situation.

FIJ understands that power was briefly restored around 8:00 am on Wednesday but went out again. Residents wondered why there was no communication or update about the three-day outage from Ikeja Electric Distribution Company (IKEDC).

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Eunice Fadeke, one of the residents affected by the outage, told FIJ that she had to empty her refrigerator on Tuesday evening by giving out her bowls of cooked food to neighbours to avoid waste.

“I had to do this because most of the things in the fridge were getting spoilt. I even had to throw out some fruits. The cooked food was almost getting spoilt. The fridge had this rotten smell that I had to clean it. To prevent stories that touch the heart, I just had to give out the food,” she said.

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A male resident, simply identified as Babatunde, said the power outage was not just affecting Grammar School but almost every area in Berger.

“It is everywhere. It is not just Grammar School. I learnt it’s nearly the whole of Berger. I doubt if it’s a transformer-related issue because if it was, we would know. I even heard that Akiode also has this power issue,” he said.

While Babatunde was speaking, another resident, who did not disclose his name, said, “We can’t even sleep in this Lagos heat!

“Some people sleep outside of their houses because of heat. And we don’t even know exactly what’s wrong. Whether it’s the transformer or stolen items from the transformer, no one knows.”

A female trader in the area said she could not afford to buy ice to keep her refrigerated drinks cold.

“Ice blocks cost N500 per one. How many will I buy to ensure that things are cold so that customers can get cold things to buy? I learnt they are already fixing the light, but the issue is they don’t even tell us when things go wrong,” she told FIJ.

Ndukwe, a trader who sells foodstuff and frozen food like fish, chicken and turkey around Grammar School, said he had not been able to re-stock the frozen items because of the light issues.

“The power outage reach this area o. Na almost everywhere. We no know the cause. No be transformer wey spoil, because if it was, we for don hear. But we no even know wetin go wrong. Nobody tell us anything,” he said.

“Before the light issue, na small the frozen items remain. After selling that one finish, I never restock since then because of the power issue.

When asked if he had a generator, he responded in the affirmative but mentioned that the cost of fueling the generator amid the country’s current economic reality didn’t make it an option.

“Buying fuel means increasing the costs of items, and people are already complaining about the costs. Imagine if you now have to add to it. Our politicians made the cost of fuel go up, and one can easily run into losses if care is not taken,” he said.

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Another female trader, who sells different varieties of drinks around Aina Street, told FIJ that the outage had caused a reduction in patronage, as many customers who sought cold drinks had to go elsewhere.

“People are not even talking. There is light in some areas like Oja, but not here at Grammar School. We don’t really know what’s happening, and everyone is just looking,” she said.

“Whenever such a thing happened in the past, different streets would gather and send like four men to the electricity office to know what was wrong, but now, nobody is talking. For good three days now, there has been no light. And nobody is talking.”

Phone calls to Adebayo Dawodu, the spokesperson of the Ikeja Electric Distribution Company (IE), on Wednesday were not answered.

Messages sent to Dawodu and the official WhatsApp line of Ikeja Electric had also not been responded to at press time.

Meanwhile, Ikeja Electric made an announcement via its official page on X (Twitter) on Wednesday afternoon, stating that “the current power supply disruption is a result of ongoing maintenance work on the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) gas pipeline supplying gas to Egbin Power Generation Company.”

“Consequently, this has led to a temporary shutdown of the plant, resulting in extensive load shedding nationwide. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused by this situation and assure you that normalcy will be restored upon the completion of the maintenance work,” the company stated.