Many residents of Ogun and Lagos celebrate this year’s Salah festival in darkness following the prolonged power outage in their environs by Ikeja and Ibadan DisCos, Nigerian Tribune reports.

The power outage, which has lasted four days in Ojodu, Berger, part of Ogba and Ketu, also affected residents of Arepo, Magboro, Mowe and Ibafo.

Further enquiry showed that Ikeja Disco had sent a message to the affected electricity consumers, intimating them that the current power outage was due to fault on the lines couple with fault at TS.

“Dear Customers, The current outage is due to fault on the lines couple with fault at TS.

“Stakeholders are working to ensure restoration early tomorrow. Kindly bear with us,” the message, which was sent four days ago, read.

Apart from power outage, the mood of most residents is further dampened by the sudden surge in the price of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG), popularly known as cooking gas, to 2,200 per kilogram from the previous N1,500 per kg, last two weeks.

Many residents, on Wednesday were seen moving from one gas depot or retail shop to another in search of affordable cooking gas.

While many claimed to be used to incessant power outage, they expressed surprise over sudden surge in the price of cooking gas during Salah celebration.

Nigerian Tribune field surveys show that most gas depots and retail outlets in some parts of Lagos and Ogun States closed shops on Wednesday, while few that opened shops for business sold one kilogram of LPG between N2,000 and N2,200, citing supply challenge.

Another finding also revealed that some residents have switched to charcoal stove as alternative to cooking gas already.

Speaking to our reporter, one of the residents in Ojodu Berger, Lagos, Lukma Osho, said there has been scarcity of cooking gas in the neighbourhood in the last one week.

For residents that went to other nearby locations in search of cooking gas, he said they bought the product at N2,000 per kg.

Another resident in Magboro, Ogun State, Afeez Yunus, said that cooking gas was available in Arepo, Mowe and Ibafo, but that retail outlets were selling at N2,200 per kg, making things difficult for people to fully celebrate the festive period.

A manager in one of the gas depots in Magboro, Funso Adisa, said there have been challenges in the supply of cooking gas lately from Apapa depot in the last two weeks.

He said that most gas trucks have been on the queue for the products in the past two weeks without success.

He explained that his company had paid for 20 tons of the product about three weeks ago, only to be asked to add additional N1.4 million before it could be supplied the product.

Cooking gas supply hiccups and additional levy on gas station, he said, were responsible for the surge in the price of cooking gas across Nigeria.

In recent interview with Nigerian Tribune, President, Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM), Barrister Edu Inyang, said that many factors were responsible for the current price hike of cooking gas.

Late last year, he said the combined domestic LPG contribution by Dangote Refinery and NLNG accounted for 87 per cent of the LPG in the domestic market.

He stated that the production glitches in Dangote Refinery which accounted for a large percentage of the quantity of LPG supplied to the market led to insufficient LPG supply to the domestic market.

“The quantity produced by other fringe producers has not been able to meet the quantity supplied to the market demand,” he said. (TRIBUNE)

Update news