Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company has apologised to customers over the state of power supply in Lalupon environs due to a collapsed bridge in the area.

The Coordinating Head, Corporate Services, Angela Olanrewaju, at a news conference on Tuesday, in Ibadan, Oyo State, said that the collapsed bridge damaged several poles on its network.

The press conference was in response to a peaceful protest organised by some residents of the affected communities on Monday.

Mrs Olanrewaju stated that the incident caused part of Lalupon 33KV feeder to be isolated due to lack of right of way to re-erect the broken poles.

This, she said, made 32 substations out of supply, thereby affecting several communities in the area.

She reiterated the company’s commitment to resolving the main long-standing issues in the area when funds were available.

Mrs Olanrewaju said that a temporary solution would, however, be provided to restore supply to the area.

She said, “It is part of projects included in the Performance Improvement Projects submitted to Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission in 2022. We got approval from NERC, unfortunately we didn’t have the funding for the project which is over N1.5billion. When the CBN intervention fund in the form of loans to Discos came up, we decided to take advantage of that, however, the project couldn’t commence in December 2023, because CBN put the intervention fund on hold.’’

She also revealed that the IBEDC had commenced a quick win solution that would ensure supply of electricity to affected communities in the interim, pending the construction of the collapsed bridge.

“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and we are using this medium to assure our customers that every effort is being made to expedite the completion of the 33kV substation project and restore full power supply. As a customer-centric company, we are deeply concerned about the supply situation, as such, we have held over 10 meetings with the leaders of the communities to explain the situation. The meetings with community leaders underscore our commitment to resolving these issues and improving service delivery,” she said.

IBEDC Officer in charge of technical services, Christopher Lawal, said that a technical team had been working to back-feed the affected communities from neighbouring communities with electricity supply within three weeks.

“We appreciate the patience and understanding exhibited by the affected communities so far. We are working toward more reliable and efficient power supply for Lalupon and its environs, “he said

Residents of the affected communities on Monday took to the streets to protest failure of IBEDC to supply electricity to them.

The protesters, in large numbers, stormed the IBEDC office and obstructed vehicular movement.

(NAN)