The Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) have blamed the activities of vandals for the 10-month-old electricity blackout in three communities in Ondo State.

Residents of Irese, Aaye and Ikota in Ifedore Local Government Area on Friday protested the power outage in their communities and threatened to storm the Akure office of BEDC in massive demonstration of their grievances. 

Assuring the residents that power will be restored in the communities before Christmas, a spokesperson for the BEDC in Ondo, Michael Barnabas, said, “The power outage is due to the activities of vandals and we have taken some measures to check the development.”

Mr Barnabas said that the vandals were in the habit of stealing electric items from the transformer supplying the towns. 

Irese, Aaye and Ikota towns had been in total blackout since February, paralysing the economic, commercial, and social activities of residents in the communities. 

With the blackout culminating in 10-month-old, many business owners in the three affected towns have shut down their shops, while artisans who depend on electricity to survive their trades have continued to relocate from the communities. 

In a protest letter addressed to the Regional Manager of BEDC, Akure, the residents stated that the continuous power outage had heightened insecurity in the three towns. 

The letter, signed by the Olurese of Irese land, Oba Ahmed Destiny Saka, on behalf of the three towns, said the residents had no choice but to stage a mass protest.

“After exploiting all avenues of amity to bring sanity to our relationship by reinstalling electrify supply to our communities with no success in view, we have no choice that to organise a procession spanning protests to let the world know of the parlous state of electricity supply to our towns,” the letter read in part.

The electricity company said it was working to restore power to the affected towns, while assuring that the areas would be lit up before the festivity period.

“We have been working to restore power in the area and very soon, at least before Christmas, the residents will smile, they should just exercise some little patience.”