Two masquerades led youths in Omu-Aran in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State to protest over alleged outrageous billing and sudden movement of the community?s electricity billing regime from Band C to Band A.

The protesters, on Friday, were seen gathered at Bareke Roundabout in the metropolis, carrying placards with various inscriptions amidst dancing and singing of war songs.

Some of the inscriptions on the placards read, ?Omu-Aran Says No to Band A?, ?Bring Us Back to Band C?, ?Revert Omu-Aran to Band C ?, and ?Omu-Aran Youths Have Spoken Loudly?.

According to the youths, the sudden movement of the electricity billing from Band C to Band A was responsible for the outrageous bills received for March 2025.

The protesters claimed that there were many unresolved challenges militating against uninterrupted electricity supply across designated community areas before the billing regime?s sudden movement.

The protesters rejected an attempt to be escorted by police personnel and some other security agencies.

The current charges on some of the electricity bills gathered by the youth were between the range of N41,000 and N47,000 for the month of March as against the old rate of between N10,000 and N15,000.

The protest took the youth to major streets in the community such as the Olomu Market, Latinwo Market Area, Olomu palace, as well as the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company?s District office located inside Omu-Aran City Complex.

The protesters also blocked some major highways leading to neighbouring states, including Omu-Aran-Kabba Highway as well as Omu-Aran-Otun-Ekiti Highway, which forced motorists and travellers to wait for hours.

They vowed to continue with the protest until their demands and grievances were addressed by IBEDC and the community leaders.

Some of their demands, according to a statement signed by the President of Omu-Aran Development Association, Niyi Adeyeye, included the replacement of faulty transformers and the reversion of the billing from Band A.

The statement added, ?Some of our demands include the replacement of faulty transformers leading to inconsistent electricity supply in some key areas of the community, reversion of the billing from Band A to the previous Band C and improvement of electricity supply, suspension of Band A billings and review of the current charges to reflect the old billing regime.

?Other demands included independent review of IBEDC service delivery in Omu-Aran to assess the relevance of the proper tariff regime classification, immediate stoppage of overdraft purchase on pre-paid meters as well as stoppage of electricity consumers purchasing materials for faulty electricity equipments.?

The Olomu of Omu-Aran, Oba Abdulraheem Adeoti, while receiving the protesters in his palace, appealed for calm, saying that the community leaders were already discussing with the IBEDC officials the need to address the issues.

He urged the youth to exercise restraint and wait for the outcome of the intervention by the community leaders. (Saturday PUNCH)

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