For years, Okeho, a valley town located in Kajola, Oyo State, South-West Nigeria, has been crying about marginalisation in the scheme of things. These are in the areas of bad roads, political appointments, and lack of government presence to combat security. Okeho is surrounded by the following towns: Ilero, Ilua, Ayetoro-oke, Isemi ile, Iwere-oke, Ilaji-oke
Like salt that is applied to a festering injury for maximum effect, the area recently complained about poor electricity supply, inadequate metering and high billing of customers.
However, the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) Plc which supplies power to the area has responded to the complaints, published by an online publication. IBEDC, therefore, appealed for calm from the affected communities, assuring them that the power supply situation would soon improve.
A statement by the Chief Operating Officer of the Company, Engr. John Ayodele said that a 132 KV line supplies the 11 LGs from Oyo town to Iseyin, Okeho, Otu, Paapo, Ago-Are up to Saki, and this puts a lot of pressure on the infrastructure, which is the reason for its poor performance. In response to this challenge, the Federal Government has commenced construction of a new 132 KV line to augment and improve the present supply. “In addition, we are about to energize the control room at Ogan to enable effective supply arrangement by stepping down the 33KV line to 11KV, this will serve the communities better”. Engr. Ayodele explained.
Engr. Ayodele further said that Okeho is on service band E, which means that they should get an average supply of four hours daily, but currently they get an average of five hours. Also in line with NERC stipulated tariff, the communities are billed monthly on a cumulative average of computerized daily supply in compliance with the capping policy. “IBEDC is a customer-centric organization, and we are working on metering our customers to put an end to the billing issues. As soon as we begin more deployment of meters under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) or any other scheme approved by NERC, we shall continue to meter our customers based on the service band categorization for ease of distribution”
Engr. Ayodele also pleaded with his company’s customers at Okeho to remain patient and embrace constructive dialogue to ensure better outcomes.