Stakeholders in Ondo South Senatorial district, Ondo state have petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari over ten years of power outage.

They said that the riverine communities have been disconnected from the national grid by Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) for over 10 years.

Their spokesperson, a renowned social crusader, Comrade Kolade Omoyeni in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari said the people of the region needed urgent rescue by the government from decades of outright blackout.

According to him, the development has also destroyed the socio-economic development of the district thereby causing the people untold hardship.

The open letter to President Buhari on Thursday, entitled: “PRESIDENT BUHARI, SAVE ONDO SOUTH FROM DECADES OF DARKNESS NOW,” Omoniyi said “The social, economic, and moral growth and development of our people are now in obvious disarray.

“Even politicians have worked to get BEDC to the needful but the electricity distributor is hell-bent on keeping over three million people in darkness.

“There can’t be an industry in Ondo South where the people have been living in darkness for about 15 years.”

He appealed to President Buhari give an express order to BEDC to immediately restore electricity back to the district.

Omoyeni noted that the southern senatorial district which played host to industries such as Oluwa Glass; Araromi Rubber Estate, Okitipupa Oil Palm, and others have suffered enough neglect.

He stated that if there were efforts to rebuild and advance the moribund industries, it could not be achieved without electricity supply.

Omoyeni also lamented the marginalization of the district in the distribution of power being generated by the Omotosho Power Plant.

He said BEDC customers have been enjoying power supply “while the host people are gnashing their teeth in the darkness, calls justice to question.

“Ondo South is an oil-producing district that is very significant to the economic balancing of this country. It is injustice and insensitive to keep such a people in decades of grind poverty and insecurity through the conspicuous consumption maltreatment of a service provider as the BEDC.

“We need President Buhari to ask National Electricity Regulations Commission (NERC) and the ministry of Power; is the BEDC more powerful than the regulatory agencies or even the presidency? And can’t another service provider take over Ondo South instead?

“We will be happy if this injustice against Ondo South is corrected immediately. This is a subtle appeal. The absence of electricity in Ondo South is a real threat to the livelihood of Apoi, Ilaje, Ikale, Odigbo, and Ijaw/Arogbo people. These are nations that have contributed in no small measure to what Nigeria is today.

He said that “History will note if your presidency, as you envisioned on ending on good notes, would correct the injustice against us and restore our electricity fully and unconditionally very soon.”

(Courtesy Vanguard: Text excluding headline)

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