‘Pure Lies’ – Residents React As Ikeja Electric Alleges ‘Illegal Tampering’ As Cause Of Blackout In Lagos Community

Ikeja Electric (IE) has reacted to the recent FocalPoint report on the prolonged power blackout in Isokan Phase I & II, Ayobo, Lagos, with its spokesperson, Fadeke Olaniyi, offering fresh insight into the cause of the outage amid allegations of corporate neglect.

Olaniyi claimed that the community’s transformer had failed twice, attributing both breakdowns to unauthorised interference by local individuals.

She added that IE had engaged community leaders, urging them to halt interference, citing the detrimental impact on the company’s infrastructure, revenue, and the broader community economy.

“The transformer has packed up twice due to illegal tampering by unauthorised persons within the community,” she exclusively told Naija News on Friday, July 18.

Community Resisting Legal Routes

According to Olaniyi, IE’s proposals to address billing issues, like formal disconnection, were ignored. Instead, residents resorted to illegal disconnection methods, making it challenging to resolve outstanding balances.

“IE has engaged with the leaders to enlighten them on the side effects of their actions on the infrastructure, the company’s revenue, and the backlash on the communal economy.

“All efforts have fallen on deaf ears as they insist on using illegal disconnection to collect their dues,” she said.

Restoration Work Underway

Reassuring the public, Olaniyi said the Ikeja Electric is actively working to repair and restore the transformer and implement measures to prevent future tampering.

“Efforts are ongoing to repair and restore, as well as forestall a recurrence,” she noted.

Ikeja Electric Accuses Residents Of Media Escalation

Olaniyi further expressed frustration that the community was quick to bypass IE and escalate issues to regulators and media outlets, instead of resolving them internally.

“Noteworthy is the fact that they are quick to escalate to the regulators and media,” she stated.

Pure Lies, They Are Making Up Stories – CDA Chairman

In response, the CDA Chairman, Ademola Orishatola, dismissed Ikeja Electric’s defence as a desperate cover-up.

According to him, the transformer supplied recently by the IE was not up to standard, else the issue of high voltage affecting the transformer would have been taken care of by a circuit breaker.

“This is purely lies—they are just making up stories to defend their company… the Transformer they brought in for us is not up to standard at all… If the Transformer they brought is a standard one… There must be a circuit breaker to prevent high voltage from hitting the Transformer. It is purely covered up,” he said in a chat with FocalPoint reports 

Orishatola insisted that IE’s narrative is false and claimed the transformer provided lacked essential safety features.

Nobody Tampers With The Transformer – Sources

Meanwhile, sources told Naija News that no resident has gone into the transformer to tamper with it, as claimed by Ikeja Electric.

“They are the ones doing load shedding on the transformer themselves. Why are they lying?

“It is their Ayobo Undertaking Manager that is mandating them to do load shedding. They give some streets light for one day and some others on some other day.

“They constantly switched off and on some lines. Two days on, one day off. No be NEPA go dey do that one? Community can’t do that,” another resident who spoke anonymously to FocalPoint said.

Speaking further, the source said, “Nobody tampers with it. It is Ayobo Undertaking that does load shedding. Even when the transfer packed up and the undertaken manager, Ayobo, was reached, she said they tried to manage the transformer, but it still packed up.

“So they are the ones always entering every day to cut some areas through load shedding because they said the transformer is not strong enough to power the whole area.

“The issue of people entering to tamper with it is a lie. Ikeja Electric officials said that the transformer is not large enough to cover the whole houses in the area. So they have to load-shed, give some people light one day, put them off the next day. So what they do is two days on and one day off. That is how they do it for the area.”

“And it’s only their officials that does that. Even the people in the area have been clamouring that they shouldn’t be doing loadshedding again. But Ayobo Undertaking told us that that is the only way to sustain the transformer. And it’s only their officials that have been doing it. So there is nothing like that as they claimed.

“If anyone is tampering with the transformers it is their staff that regularly go in and out of the transformer base. It is either the senior management of IE don’t want to say the truth or they are being fed lies from their officials in the Undertaking,” the source insisted.

Again, Residents Demand Accountability

FocalPoint Reported that a transformer failure on December 21, 2024,left the area in darkness for months.Though a replacement was installed in April, it failed within two months, prompting escalating demands from regulators like the FCCPC

Residents say that frequent breakdowns have forced them to run costly generators and inverters, crippling small businesses and affecting everyone negatively.