Residents of Alegbor community in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State, today embarked on a massive protest over seven months perpetual darkness in their area. Consequently, Staff of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC fled their offices for fear of being attacked by the highly enraged protesters , DAILY POST is reporting.
The residents chanted solidarity songs as they matched to the Effurun GRA Office of BEDC, bearing placards with inscriptions such as,” NEPA give us light. NEPA give us prepaid meters. Funke give us prepaid meter. BEDC stop the fraud. Stop Ojoro” and “Stop the fraud. No light, No pay. Over billing must stop. Stop estimation” as they threatened to block major roads including the PTI, Jakpa, Ugbuwangue and roundabouts if their demands were not met by BEDC.
Speaking on behalf of the residents, Mrs. Dorcas Ehimika warned BEDC to stop rationing their light in the area, stressing that they last saw light seven months ago.
Ehimika stated that transformer in the area were in a bad condition without oil, pointing out that BEDC allegedly asked them to contribute money to refill same aside the over-estimated bill they were forced to pay monthly including rationing of their light.
” We last saw light January. Before now, they gAve us light two days and go off two days only to changeit to one day on and one day off from 3pm-6pm. Later, they seized the light and left us in darkness for over seven months.”
“We cannot take this any longer. We are on a peaceful protest and all we are saying is that BEDC should give us light. But if they fail, we will block all the major roads like PTI, Jakpa, Ugbuwangue and roundabout until Government and BEDC hear our cry.”
A BEDC Official Van was seen escaping from the scene while Staff ran away from office with the establishment’s gate closed down before the arrival of the protesters.
As at the time of filing this report, residents of Alegbor community are still at the gate of BEDC and no official has come out to address them yet.
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