“Enough Is Enough”: Lagos Estate Residents Storm IKEDC Over Months-Long Blackout

January 27, 2026 admin 0 Comments

Angry residents of Gowon Estate, Egbeda, Lagos, protest at IKEDC office after enduring over three months without electricity.

For residents of Gowon Estate in Egbeda, life has been lived in darkness for months — and on Monday morning, that frustration spilled into the streets. After waiting endlessly for relief, the community decided to confront the electricity provider directly.

Dozens of residents from Gowon Estate converged on the nearby office of the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, demanding answers over a prolonged power outage that has crippled daily life in parts of the community since October 2025.

According to the protesters, electricity supply was cut off after a 500KVA transformer serving several streets along 34 Road broke down on October 12. Areas affected include B Close, C Close, D Close and F Close, leaving hundreds of households without power for more than three months.

Residents said repeated complaints, letters and visits to the company yielded little beyond assurances that were never followed by action. Although engineers reportedly inspected the faulty transformer days after the outage began, the equipment was neither repaired nor replaced, plunging the estate into prolonged darkness.

The impact on families has been severe. Food preservation has become nearly impossible, household expenses have soared due to generator fuel costs, and the intense heat has made living conditions unbearable — particularly for children and elderly residents.

Some protesters expressed anger that despite loading their prepaid meters and settling electricity bills, they have been forced to rely entirely on generators. Others warned that the situation was pushing residents to the brink, with tempers flaring over what they described as neglect by the power distributor.

Petitions submitted by the community revealed that the transformer, already more than four decades old, had suffered multiple failures in recent months. Residents argued that repeated repairs were no longer enough and insisted that only a full replacement would bring lasting relief.

Tensions rose during the protest as some residents threatened to shut down the IKEDC office if immediate steps were not taken. Chants of “enough is enough” echoed through the area as demonstrators called for urgent intervention.

Eventually, a senior company official addressed the crowd, apologising for the prolonged outage and assuring residents that engineers would be deployed to explore temporary solutions, including linking the estate to an alternative transformer while a permanent fix is arranged.

For the residents of Gowon Estate, however, patience has been stretched thin. After months without electricity, they say only visible action — not promises — will restore confidence that their ordeal is finally coming to an end.

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