Residents groan in Ogun, Lagos communities as power outage continues

This writer gathered that since Tuesday, March 8, 2022, the residents have been experiencing a total blackout, such that many households have been in complete darkness.

Sonia Emenike, a resident of Alagbole-Akute, who spoke with this writer, said she, alongside her neighbors, have been struggling to secure water for use since the power outage began.

“You know the challenges that come with not having power supply, especially when it’s for two days and counting… They are usually enormous. Now, we have to pay our northern brothers to fetch water for us from long distances, and you can’t even guarantee if what they are bringing you is clean water,” she stated.

Also sharing her ordeal since the blackout, a barber, who identified himself as Isaac Adebowale, lamented that he’s been using a generator to supply power to his shop, and as a result, his profit has significantly reduced.

“For my business, I need electricity to power my gadgets for the cutting of the hair of my customers. And because of this, I have to secure petrol by all means even though we are battling the shortage of the commodity, which has made things very tough for me. I bought the petrol I’m using for N230 per litre, and this has reduced what I make as profit significantly,” Adebowale said.

A frozen foods seller, Rukayat, while sharing her ordeal, stated that without powering her refrigerator with fuel, she would have recorded serious losses. In her words, “It’s been very costly to keep my store running with generators because petrol is scarce and it’s now expensive. I just hope the power supply is soon restored.”

She, therefore, pleaded with Ikeja Electric to address the lack of power supply matter.