Fadlullah Sulaimon
Not less than 47 communities under Saraki Adigbe, Abeokuta in the Obafemi-Owode local government area of Ogun state have been thrown into darkness despite spending millions of naira on power supply.
The Chief Public Relations Officer of the Olohundara Community Development Association, Aderogba Owoeye stated this on Wednesday, while speaking with PLATFORM TIMES on the challenges facing his and 46 other communities in the area.
Owoeye who said he had lived in the community for over 20 years, lamented that economy has been paralysed in the communities as a result of lack of electricity.
Speaking on the efforts made so far to restore electricity in the communities, Owoeye said the Olohundara community sought help from the neighbouring community which granted the request but, later disconnected it due to overloading on the transformer.
He also added that residents of the communities contributed money to buy polls, aluminum conductors as well as energizing a transformer donated to the community by a philanthropist but, all to no avail.
According to him, the transformer got spoilt which threw the whole 47 communities into darkness.
Owoeye said “I have been living in this area for over twenty years, and since then we hardly have light, we might not have it for over a month sometimes and we were being given huge amount of bills.
“Then we were forced to connect the light from a neighboring community which is Kuforiji Olubi Estate Adigbe, but, still all the same.
“It is seven years since the struggle begins, when the Kuforiji estate called us to a meeting as a result of their transformer which could no longer power the two communities again.
“We had to be disconnected from their transformer and, since then, we have contributed millions of naira to install over 30 concrete polls, aluminum conductors, and to energize a transformer.
“We have 47 CDAs in the whole of Saraki and there is no enough transformer, we had to be sharing one amidst three or more communities.”
The community leader however, appealed to the government on their plight, saying, as a community, they can’t provide a transformer.
He said “we implore the state government to come to our aid on this issue of transformer. We have entrepreneurs in our community who are in need of light to work, such as welders, fashion designers, frozen foods and cold drinks sellers, who need light to support their works.
“Most of them are already shutting down, due to the lack of electricity in the community. To power a generator so as to work nowadays is even a great problem due to the subsidy removal and hike in petrol price.”
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