- Agbede community decry persistent power outages
- Blame BEDC for disconnecting the community from grid supply
- Community farmers worst hit by the outages
The Agbede community in Etsako West Council of Edo state has decried the community’s persistent power outages. Over the weekend, residents of the community protested against Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), who they blame for the prolonged issue.
According to the residents, BEDC had disconnected the community from the Irrua Transmission line, which previously supplied the area and then connected them to the Auchi Transmission line. Since the disconnection, the community have suffered persistent outages. The Spokesperson for the community, Ogiso Tunde Ogbeide, stated that the outages had affected the residential and commercial activities in the area. According to Ogbeide, the commercial activities of rice farmers in the community have been greatly affected, with the costs of rice milling going high due to a reliance on self-generation.
Reacting to the protests, the Corporate Affairs Manager BEDC, Tayo Adekunle, said the community restored the supply.