Residents of Irese community in the Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State on Monday protested the community’s eight-month-long power outage.
Residents, mainly youths of the community, blocked the community’s major road in large numbers with wood, benches, and tables for several hours.
Following the protest, residents were obliged to close their shops and place them under lock and key.
While preventing the movement of vehicles and motorcycles into and out of town, the enraged residents bemoaned the fact that the community had remained in utter darkness for five months.
They chastised the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC, for being unresponsive to their issue.
Ifeoluwa Olomofe, a resident of the community said the darkness that had descended on the area had heightened the sense of insecurity, requiring the protest.
She explained that the community’s businesses, particularly artisans, had suffered as a result of the five-month power outage.
Mr. Micheal Barnabas, the spokesman for the BEDC’s Akure Branch, said the transformers in the community had been damaged by vandals who stole some oil, but that the problem would be resolved soon.