By Godwin Oghre

Sapele —No fewer than 1,000 aggrieved residents of Sapele Local Government Area of Delta State, have protested the poor electricity supply to the area by Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC, sending a Save-Our-Soul, SOS, to the Minster of Power, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, over their plight.

The protesters.

The protesters led by Ben Tobi and Patrick Iton, lamented that they had been experiencing unending power outages in the area for a very long time.

They displayed placards with inscriptions such as “BEDC, give us light”, “We are tired of no supply of light in Sapele”, “Fashola, please prevail on BEDC to give us light”, “ NERC, do not compromise your role in Sapele,” among others.

According to them,  “BEDC should give us light when the step down in Sapele has light, instead of giving us light for only seven hours a day. The break-down of light supply for now is  10 am to 2 pm  and 11 pm to 2 am.”

They pleaded with the minister to “call NERC to order for not calling the BEDC to order over the unending power disruption in Sapele.”

The protesters said it was sending the SOS through the media to the Power minister because they were finding it difficult to get to him, lamenting that efforts at reaching the minister had been fruitless.

They  said: “We want the minister to call NERC to order so that NERC can call BEDC to order and restore stable light to us. We implore the minister to verify our claims. We have consistently prevailed on NERC to call BEDC to order to no avail. That is why we are sending our SOS through Vanguard newspapers to the minister so that he would prevail on NERC to order BEDC to supply power to our area, instead of giving us flimsy excuses that they are not making money from the town. This is a surprise to us as we are paying our bills.

“We are surprised at the company excuses and for NERC to allow such excuse when so many of us are being ripped off with over billing.

“We urge BEDC to find a way of dealing with debtors of electricity bills in the area instead of giving us light for only seven hours daily.”